IPMAT Indore 2023 · Verbal Ability · Question 27

IPMAT Indore 2023 previous year question on Word Usage in Context, with the answer and a step-by-step solution.

Word Usage in ContextVocabularyMultiple choiceMedium
One of the statements below contains a word used incorrectly or inappropriately. Choose the option which has the incorrect or inappropriate usage of the word.
  1. A
    It was a full moon night and the tied was high, but he went boating and, unfortunately, he drowned.
  2. B
    After many years of knowing one another, they eventually tied the knot.
  3. C
    The bags placed on the carrier were not securely tied, which led to an unfortunate accident.
  4. D
    I have a good chance of a promotion since my firm has recently tied up with a global conglomerate.
Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option A

The word pair being tested: tied vs tide.

tied — past tense of tie, to fasten.

tide — the rise and fall of the sea.

Checking each option:

(b) “tied the knot” ✔ — the idiom for getting married.

(c) “not securely tied” ✔ — fastened.

(d) “tied up with a global conglomerate” ✔ — the phrasal verb for forming a partnership.

(a) “It was a full moon night and the tied was high” ✘ — the subject here is the sea, and the word needed is tide. The reference to a full moon confirms it: moon phases govern tides.

Answer: Option 1

Shortcut. The context word is full moon. Moon → tide. That single association identifies the error before you examine the grammar.

The grammar confirms it independently: “the tied was high” puts a past-tense verb in a noun slot after the. Tied is never a noun, so the sentence cannot parse.

Run the part-of-speech check first in every word-usage question. In this paper it settles Q80 (farther as a verb) and Q84 (tied as a noun) outright, with no vocabulary knowledge at all.

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