Nonexistent Antonyms Trivia Quiz

Answer: Concerned, worried

To act in a nonchalant manner is to be cool, calm and collected. While words like 'concerned', 'anxious' and 'worried' are acceptable antonyms, 'chalant' isn't. Should you be chalant with regards to 'chalant' not being a real word? Probably not.

Answer: Stupid, dim

Just like 'non-', 'in-' as a prefix describes something which isn't. For example, 'inexact', 'incredible' and 'insane'. However, there's a great many words that start with 'in-' which look like they would be the opposite of a word but aren't. Take 'instant'.

It means 'immediate' or 'straight away'. Take the 'in-' off it and you get 'stant'. That's not a word that means 'slow' or 'delayed'. It's not even a word at all. The English language is a curious thing.

Answer: Overt, obvious

'Unnoticed' and 'discreet' would be appropriate antonyms for 'incognito', a word which comes to us from Latin. 'Cognito', unfortunately, isn't an acceptable opposite, though it has been used (albeit rarely) in informal conversation as a way of expressing that which is overt or not incognito. Regardless, 'cognito' doesn't exist as a word in English.

Answer: Free, release

Here's another one of those pesky words where the removal of 'in-' does not result in a true antonym. If you incarcerate someone, you imprison or detain them. Let them go and you'll be liberating them, not carcerating them. In actual fact, 'carcerate' does exist as a word (although it is very rarely used nowadays).

It functions in much the same way that 'flammable' and 'inflammable' do. 'Carcerate' essentially means the same as 'incarcerate' - detain, confine, jail. In any case, it certainly isn't an antonym of 'incarcerate' but a synonym.

Answer: Similarity, likeness

A discrepancy in something is an inconsistency, something which is different from the rest. You might find a discrepancy in your balance sheets or in an inventory list or in statements given by witnesses to a crime. If everything matches up, then you don't have any discrepancies, but neither do you have any crepancies. You would have congruence or an affinity; an agreement.

Answer: Working, operational

It's a fact of life - most things will become defunct at some point. Be it your favourite video game developer, your favourite toaster or last year's smartphone release; if it's gone, stopped working, ceased to exist or been supplanted by something else, it's defunct. In contrast, something that is not defunct is used, working, functional and not obsolete.

Answer: Tidy, neat

I'm sure we've all looked dishevelled at one time or another. Have you ever woken up of a morning, only to look in the mirror and see your hair all over the place and your pyjamas all crumpled and creased? Or is that just me? If you give yourself a tidy up and return to a neat, smart appearance, then you would have become the opposite of 'dishevelled'.

Answer: Able, competent

For me, it's making friends. I'm completely inept at making friends. As I've been variously described, I'm a clumsy, bumbling pile of awkwardness. If, miraculously, my confidence was suddenly boosted and I became this talented, adroit maker of friends, then, frankly, I would be expecting hell to freeze over momentarily. My petty, personal shortcomings aside, 'ept' is not the opposite of 'inept'. If you're bad or not very good at something, you're inept. If you're the opposite, you're skilful, competent and generally able.

Answer: Fortunate, fortuitous

Suppose the sun suddenly blinks out of existence right now. That would be an example of something disastrous. Granted, we wouldn't know until around eight minutes after it actually happens because of the speed that the light travels. So, in these eight minutes of relative normality where nothing has gone wrong, we would not be in an astrous situation, simply because 'astrous' is not a word. Things could be auspicious, comfortable or just generally well, but certainly not 'astrous'.

Answer: Open, sincere

If someone's beguiling, deceptive or duplicitous, they're insidious too. If they were to undergo a radical change in personality and become the opposite of insidious, they'd be more or less a straightforward, honest person. No trickery, no treachery, just upfront, frank and, if you want to use a nonexistent word, sidious. That's the best kind of person, really.