Question

Find the synonym of the underlined word.

River, valleys and coastal plains constitute approximately a third of the country.

a) More or less
b) Decreasingly
c) Minimally
d) Precisely
e) Outlandishly

Answer 1

Hint: Synonyms are words or phrases that mean exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase.

Complete answer:

In the given question, the word ‘approximately’ is used to show that something is almost, accurate or exact; roughly.
Let us analyze the options given to us in this question:

Option (a.), 'more or less', refers to speaking imprecisely; to a certain extent; roughly.
Therefore, option (a.) is correct as its meaning is synonymous to that of the given word ‘approximately’.

Option (b.), ‘decreasingly' is a word that does not exist; is grammatically incorrect.
Therefore, option (b.) is incorrect.

Option (c.), ‘minimally', refers to something’s extremely small extent; negligibly.
Therefore, option (c.) is incorrect as its meaning is not synonymous with that of the given word ‘approximately’.

Option (d.), ‘precisely', refers to something in exact terms; without vagueness.
Therefore, option (d.) is incorrect as its meaning is not synonymous with that of the given word ‘approximately’.

Option (e.), ‘outlandishly', refers to something in a way that is strange and unusual.
Therefore, option (e.) is incorrect as it is not synonymous with the given word ‘approximately’.

Note: You may think that ‘more or less’ is not the right answer because it is not a one-word answer, it is a phrase. However, synonyms can also be phrases. A word may have a synonymous phrase and vice versa.