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Word analogy

An analogy asks you to name the relationship between two words and find another pair that stands in the same one.

Say the relationship out loud as a sentence before looking at the options: `a thermometer measures temperature`. Then test each option against that exact sentence. A pair that needs the sentence reworded is not the answer.

Direction matters. If the first pair runs tool-to-purpose, the answer must run tool-to-purpose and not the reverse, and the reversed pair is almost always one of the options.

Where two options both seem to fit, the relationship you named was too loose. Tighten it until only one survives.

Worked examples

Try these, then read why.

Written for this platform and generated from the same bank the practice sets draw on. Every wrong option is explained, because knowing why a distractor was tempting is most of the learning.

library : volume :: skeleton : ?

  1. Asorghum
  2. Bvertebra (correct)
  3. Csleep
  4. Dstar

Name the relationship before looking at the options: in library : volume, the second is a part of the first. Applying the same relationship to skeleton gives vertebra. State the relationship in a short sentence first. An option that is merely on the same topic will not survive that test.

  • A This word expresses a different relationship, where the second is a specific member of the first.
  • C This word expresses a different relationship, where the first is defined by the absence of the second.
  • D This word belongs to the right kind of relationship, but not to the pair in the question.

______ is to plentiful as diligent is to ______.

  1. Aorchestra - island
  2. Bnegligent - scarce
  3. Cplentiful - diligent
  4. Dscarce - negligent (correct)

Two words are printed in different positions, so name the relation from what you can see: the second word means the opposite of the first. Working backwards from plentiful gives scarce; working forwards from diligent gives negligent. Order matters here in a way it does not with one blank: the same two words in the other blanks is always on offer.

  • A Both words come from a relation where the second is a part of the first, which is not the relation printed.
  • B This puts the right two words in the wrong blanks, which reverses the relation at both ends.
  • C This repeats the two words already printed rather than supplying the missing ones.

Practise this properly.

Three examples show you the format. Finding out whether word analogy is actually costing you marks takes a measured set, which is what the free diagnostic is for.

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