Mains oriented Vocabulary
Almost every GS Mains paper has a vocabulary specific to it which helps a a candidate appearing in mains to express her/his ideas in a coherent manner . Therefore, it is extremely important for students appearing for UPSC Mains to put these words to use while answering writing sessions. I have compiled this list based on Daily newspaper reading and other books. Find below a list of words for GS Mains PAPER-2
- Abdication : to give up a position, power
- Abdication of responsibility
- Abate: to decrease or reduce in value
- Abeyance: Temporary suspension or to put on hold
- Abject: miserable or pitiable (abject poverty)
- Abjure: abandon formally (abjure violence)
- Abstinence: To give up certain pleasures for larger cause
- Abysmal: very bad
- Aggrandize: to make something appear larger or attractive (social aggrandizement of Corruption)
- Alacrity: Cheerful willingness, speed
- Alleviate: to relieve or improve partially
- Ameliorate: To improve
- Allurement: the power to entice by charm [allurement of ministerial position]
- Amenable: agreeable, cooperative (amenable bureaucracy)
- Anachronism: something out of sync with times
- Analogous: Comparable
- Anarchy: absence of government, state of disorder
- Anomalous: deviating from the norm (anomalous situation)
- Apathy: Indifference
- Apprise: to inform
- Appease: to calm, pacify, placate
- arduous: extremely difficult, laborious
- aspersion: to cast a doubt, false rumour (casting aspersions on PM about rafale deal)
- assuage: to make less severe (to assuage the concerns of minorities)
- stringent: harsh (rapists should be given stringent punjshment)
- Asylum: Place of Refuge or safe shelter (Refugees have been provided asylum)
Some Exam oriented Idioms and Phrases useful for Mains:
- Part and parcel – a basic and necessary part of something.
- Play truant – to stay away from school/job without leave or explanation.
- Nip in the bud – to stop something immediately so that it does not
become a worse problem. (Insurgency) - Wax and wane – to increase and decrease over time (GDP Growth, Covid cases)
- A blessing in disguise – an apparent misfortune that eventually has good
results. - Fly in the face of – to be openly at variance with what is expected by a majority of people. [Govt claims of arresting COVID cases flew in the face when ]
- Tooth and nail – states that you fight as hard as you can to get or achieve something. [CRPF fought tooth & nail]
- Take to the task – to scold or hold one accountable for some wrong they committed.
- At large – used to denote a criminal or dangerous animal at liberty; escaped or not yet captured.
- Leave in the lurch – to leave or abandon one without assistance in an awkward situation.
- Spur of the moment – used to say that a decision is sudden and done without any planning.
- Cut and dried – being or done according to a plan, set procedure, or formula.
- At the eleventh hour – means the last possible moment for doing something.
