Question

Select the option that is nearest in meaning to the underlined word:
He loves doing nasty things.
a)nice
b)fastidious
c)foul
d)finicky

Answer 1

Hint: Synonyms are those words which give similar meaning to a certain word. One word can have many synonyms based on what type of definition, that is, different synonyms can correlate to a word, in the form of a noun or an adjective or a verb. Such words are useful so that we do not cause unnecessary repetitions as well as convey the point of view without any change in the meaning.

Complete step-by-step answer:

The word “nasty” refers to a quality that is filthy, vicious, offensive, or hard to deal with. When searching for a synonym for the same, any type of meanings pop up, including those like disgusting, indecent, bad-tempered, and injurious.
Now, the above sentence can refer to any of these.
When considering the options, option a is not the answer when it is clearly the opposite of the word in question.
Options b and option d are synonyms of each other, referring to critical, picky, demanding, or something that is painstaking to take care of. Eg: My son is fastidious when it comes to food.
Option c, foul, is the word that lies closest to nasty, pointing out definitions such as disgusting or gross.
Hence, option c is the correct answer to the given question.

Note: Foul and finicky may give vibes of the same meaning, but it is entirely different. So, it is better to clearly differentiate each word.