IPMAT Indore 2025 · Verbal Ability · Question 7

IPMAT Indore 2025 previous year question on Commonly Confused Words, with the answer and a step-by-step solution.

Commonly Confused WordsVocabularyMultiple choiceMedium
The labourers who were fired broke into the office building and destroyed some of the machinery. Rather than finding a solution to their problems, they __________
  1. A
    exacerbated the situation
  2. B
    extended their troubles
  3. C
    exaggerated their hardships
  4. D
    extenuated the circumstance
Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option A

What the sentence needs. “Rather than finding a solution” sets up a contrast: their violent action made things worse.

The word. Exacerbate = to make a bad situation worse. ✓

Why the others fail:

extended their troubles — extend means to prolong in time. Breaking in and destroying machinery does not merely lengthen the problem; it intensifies it. Weaker and less precise.

exaggerated their hardships — exaggerate means to overstate in description. They acted; they did not describe.

extenuated the circumstance — extenuate means to make an offence seem less serious (as in “extenuating circumstances”). This is the exact opposite of the required sense.

Answer: Option 1 — exacerbated the situation

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