04 September 2026 | FREE Editorial PDF

Word Power

Date: 04-Sep-2026

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All words from today’s editorials, in one place.

EDITORIAL 1: ORTHODOXY REDUX: ON KERALAM, RELIGION AND MUSLIM WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Source: The Hindu

Vocabulary

Vocabs	Simple Meaning	Synonym	Antonym
Unsettled	Caused anxiety, disturbance or a lack of calm	Disturbed	Calmed
Simple Example: Kanthapuram’s directive on Muslim women’s public participation has unsettled Keralam.
Intrude	To enter or become involved in something without invitation	Encroach	Withdraw
Simple Example: The row raises the question of how far religious authority can intrude into women’s lives.
Enshrined	Preserved or protected as sacred, especially in law	Embedded	Omitted
Simple Example: Community regulation of practice must still conform to the values enshrined in the Constitution.
Variance	A state of disagreement or conflict	Conflict	Agreement
Simple Example: Confining women to their homes is at variance with constitutional equality.
Monolith	A large, uniform and unchanging organisation or body	Uniform bloc	Diverse group
Simple Example: The editorial reminds readers that the Muslim community is not a monolith.
Orthodoxy	Strict conformity to established, traditional beliefs or practices	Conformity	Heterodoxy
Simple Example: Progress for Muslim women is meeting a counter-current of renewed orthodoxy.
Antediluvian	Extremely old-fashioned or outdated	Archaic	Modern
Simple Example: The Chief Minister rubbished the decree as antediluvian.
Equivocate	To use ambiguous language to avoid committing to a position	Hedge	Clarify
Simple Example: A party with an active women’s forum cannot equivocate on women’s right to public participation.
Rubbished	Dismissed as worthless or nonsensical	Dismissed	Endorsed
Simple Example: The Chief Minister rubbished the decree as antediluvian.
Guarded	Cautious and restrained in what one says	Cautious	Candid
Simple Example: The Congress-led government was largely guarded until the Chief Minister spoke out.

Idioms

No idioms found in the editorial.

EDITORIAL 2: MANY LAYERS: ON ONION PRODUCE, ISSUES

Source: The Hindu

Vocabulary

Vocabs	Simple Meaning	Synonym	Antonym
Remunerative	Profitable or financially rewarding	Profitable	Unprofitable
Simple Example: The state’s interventions aim at assuring farmers of remunerative prices.
Volatility	A tendency to change rapidly and unpredictably	Instability	Stability
Simple Example: The government’s interventions are focused on managing onion price volatility.
Erratic	Irregular or unpredictable in behaviour	Unpredictable	Consistent
Simple Example: Erratic weather has rendered the government’s balancing act increasingly awkward.
Bounteous	Abundant or plentiful	Abundant	Scarce
Simple Example: During the bounteous rabi harvest, Maharashtra’s onion farmers flagged low procurement prices.
Procurement	The action of obtaining goods or supplies, especially by a government	Acquisition	Disposal
Simple Example: Farmers argued the Centre’s procurement price would not cover cultivation costs.
Alluded	Referred to something indirectly	Hinted	Stated explicitly
Simple Example: The government has alluded to some price manipulation in the onion market.
Proactive	Acting in advance to deal with an expected difficulty	Preemptive	Reactive
Simple Example: The dominant issue is that the government keeps reacting instead of taking proactive measures.
Pitfalls	Hidden or unsuspected dangers or difficulties	Hazards	Advantages
Simple Example: Tamil Nadu must guard against the pitfalls of distributing onions through the PDS network.
Susceptible	Likely to be influenced or harmed by something	Vulnerable	Resistant
Simple Example: Onions are more susceptible to post-harvest losses than wheat or rice.
Exhausted	Used up completely; depleted	Depleted	Replenished
Simple Example: If other States adopt similar measures, the Central buffer could be quickly exhausted.

Idioms

Idiom	Actual Meaning	Simple Meaning
Change one’s mind	To alter a previous decision or opinion	To decide differently than before

EDITORIAL 3: ALL THE LIVES THAT GLORIA STEINEM LIVED

Source: The Indian Express

Vocabulary

Vocabs	Simple Meaning	Synonym	Antonym
Prolific	Producing much creative work, especially in large quantities	Productive	Unproductive
Simple Example: The prolific writer was one of the best-known faces of the women’s liberation movement.
Tireless	Never becoming tired; indefatigable	Indefatigable	Weary
Simple Example: Steinem was a tireless journalist, activist, political organiser and speaker.
Restlessness	An inability to stay still or settled, a constant unease	Unease	Contentment
Simple Example: Some of her restlessness owed to fears of having missed out on important experiences.
Aspired	Hoped for or had an ambition to achieve something	Longed	Disdained
Simple Example: Steinem died a few years short of the century she had aspired to.
Stalwarts	Loyal, reliable and hardworking supporters or members of a cause	Loyalists	Defectors
Simple Example: Steinem battled alongside other stalwarts of the movement like Shirley Chisholm and Bella Abzug.
Advocated	Publicly supported or recommended a particular cause or policy	Championed	Opposed
Simple Example: She advocated for reproductive freedom throughout her decades of activism.
Pervasive	Spreading widely throughout an area or group	Widespread	Rare
Simple Example: Violence against women remains pervasive despite decades of activism.
Reversals	Changes to an opposite position or direction; setbacks	Setbacks	Advances
Simple Example: The reversals in women’s rights recently are not Steinem’s failure, nor of her movement.
Reveal	To make known or disclose something previously secret	Disclose	Conceal
Simple Example: The doctor asked Steinem to never reveal his name.
Dedicated	Devoted to a particular purpose or person	Devoted	Indifferent
Simple Example: Steinem dedicated her memoir to the doctor who performed her abortion.

Idioms

Idiom	Actual Meaning	Simple Meaning
Live out of a suitcase	To travel constantly without a settled home	To be frequently on the move, never staying in one place long

EDITORIAL 4: FOR THE DOG, IT’S A TOXIC RELATIONSHIP

Source: The Indian Express

Vocabulary

Vocabs	Simple Meaning	Synonym	Antonym
Symbiotic	Involving interaction between two organisms of mutual benefit	Mutualistic	Parasitic
Simple Example: Scavenging turned gradually into a rewarding symbiotic relationship between humans and dogs.
Companionship	The feeling of fellowship or friendly relation shared with another	Fellowship	Isolation
Simple Example: Symbiosis turned to companionship, to affection and loyalty.
Cruelties	Cruel acts or behaviour causing pain or suffering	Brutalities	Kindnesses
Simple Example: Marketing about the love of dogs cannot hide the cruelties of man toward his best friend.
Tentative	Hesitant or done without confidence, not fully worked out	Hesitant	Confident
Simple Example: Those first tentative steps towards a bipedal ape turned into a rewarding relationship.
Scavenging	Searching for and collecting discarded items, especially food	Foraging	Hoarding
Simple Example: It began with a subset of grey wolves scavenging at the edge of human camps.
Deformities	Abnormalities in the shape or structure of a body part	Malformations	Normalities
Simple Example: Many purebred dogs suffer from diseases and deformities as a result of selective breeding.
Domesticated	Tamed and bred to live alongside and be of use to humans	Tamed	Wild
Simple Example: Humans have been “gene editing” dogs since they were first domesticated.
Abusive	Characterised by cruelty, harm or unfair treatment	Harmful	Caring
Simple Example: Between Homo sapiens and Canis familiaris, then, is an abusive friendship.
Unintended	Not planned or meant; accidental	Unplanned	Deliberate
Simple Example: The CRISPR gene-editing tweak may have unintended consequences for the dogs.
Breeding	The process of mating animals to produce offspring with particular traits	Propagation	Neglect
Simple Example: Perhaps gene editing is less cruel than breeding programmes of the past and present.

Idioms

Idiom	Actual Meaning	Simple Meaning
Bite the hand that feeds it	To harm or repay unkindly someone who has helped or supported you	To hurt the very person who takes care of you

EDITORIAL 5: CAUVERY NEEDS A DISTRESS-SHARING COMPACT

Source: The Indian Express

Vocabulary

Vocabs	Simple Meaning	Synonym	Antonym
Contingent	Dependent on something else, conditional	Dependent	Unconditional
Simple Example: The Mettur Dam’s opening schedule is contingent on the monsoon and Karnataka’s releases.
Ascribed	Attributed a cause or origin to something	Attributed	Disclaimed
Simple Example: Tamil Nadu has ascribed this year’s delay to a deficit in the southwest monsoon.
Obligation	A duty or commitment to do something	Duty	Choice
Simple Example: The dispute concerns Karnataka’s failure to honour its water-sharing obligation.
Impasse	A situation in which no progress is possible; a deadlock	Deadlock	Breakthrough
Simple Example: The matter went to the Supreme Court, but the impasse wasn’t resolved.
Riparian	Relating to or situated on the banks of a river	Riverside	Landlocked
Simple Example: The dispute between the lower and upper riparian states ignited political tensions.
Codify	To arrange laws or rules into a systematic code	Systematise	Deregulate
Simple Example: The Court did not codify a formula for water-sharing in deficient-monsoon years.
Reignited	Caused something to start again; revived	Revived	Extinguished
Simple Example: Karnataka’s push for the Mekedatu Dam has reignited old fears in Tamil Nadu.
Disincentivising	Discouraging a particular action, typically by reducing its benefit	Discouraging	Encouraging
Simple Example: Solutions range from disincentivising water-intensive crops to decentralised water management.
Decentralised	With control or authority distributed away from a central body	Devolved	Centralised
Simple Example: The editorial suggests encouraging decentralised water management across the basin.
Confrontationist	Tending to favour conflict or confrontation over cooperation	Combative	Conciliatory
Simple Example: The two states need to sit together and shed confrontationist attitudes.

Idioms

Idiom	Actual Meaning	Simple Meaning
Play truant	To be absent without permission, or to behave unpredictably	To not show up or behave unpredictably as expected

Test Yourself — 5 Questions

Answer all before you scroll down — then comment your score below!

Q1. Kanthapuram’s directive on Muslim women’s public participation has UNSETTLED Keralam, the editorial notes. Select the option that is the closest synonym of the word given in capitals as used in the passage.

(A) Reassured   (B) Disturbed   (C) Calmed   (D) Soothed   (E) Pacified

Answer: B

Meaning: Unsettled means caused anxiety, disturbance or a lack of calm. Logic: ‘Disturbed’ is its closest synonym. Elimination: Reassured, Calmed, Soothed and Pacified all denote a state of calm, the opposite sense.

Q2. (A) India’s decades-old balancing act between affordable food prices for consumers and remunerative prices for farmers is showing its limits in the onion market, / (B) where erratic weather and reactive policymaking has repeatedly left farmers unable to capture fair value even as buffer stocks come under pressure, / (C) with the Centre eventually raising the procurement price to ₹26.45 a kilogram after farmers argued the earlier price would not cover cultivation costs, / (D) even though many farmers, having already sold at distress prices due to poor storage, were unable to benefit from the revised rate. Identify the segment containing the grammatical error.

(A) (A)   (B) (B)   (C) (C)   (D) (D)   (E) No error

Answer: B

Meaning: subject-verb agreement error. Logic: the compound subject ‘weather and reactive policymaking’ requires ‘have repeatedly left’, not ‘has repeatedly left’. Elimination: segments A, C and D are grammatically correct.

Q3. The PROLIFIC writer was one of the best-known faces of the women’s liberation movement, the editorial notes. Select the option that is the closest synonym of the word given in capitals as used in the passage.

(A) Productive   (B) Unproductive   (C) Barren   (D) Idle   (E) Sterile

Answer: A

Meaning: Prolific means producing much creative work, especially in large quantities. Logic: ‘Productive’ is its closest synonym. Elimination: Unproductive, Barren, Idle and Sterile all denote a lack of output, the opposite sense.

Q4. Identify the correctly spelt word among the options below.

(A) Enshrined   (B) Enshrinned   (C) Enshrind   (D) Ensrhined   (E) Enshriend

Answer: A

Meaning: The correctly spelt word is ‘Enshrined’, meaning preserved or protected as sacred, especially in law. Logic: standard English spelling — a single ‘n’ and single ‘r’. Elimination: the remaining options double, drop or transpose letters.

Q5. ERRATIC weather has rendered the government’s balancing act increasingly awkward, the editorial notes. Select the option that is the closest synonym of the word given in capitals as used in the passage.

(A) Consistent   (B) Steady   (C) Regular   (D) Unpredictable   (E) Uniform

Answer: D

Meaning: Erratic means irregular or unpredictable in behaviour. Logic: ‘Unpredictable’ is its closest synonym. Elimination: Consistent, Steady, Regular and Uniform all denote reliability, the opposite sense.

How many did you get right? Comment your score below — we read every one!

Quick Recap — Today’s Words

Unsettled (Disturbed) | Intrude (Encroach) | Enshrined (Embedded) | Variance (Conflict) | Monolith (Uniform bloc) | Orthodoxy (Conformity) | Antediluvian (Archaic) | Equivocate (Hedge) | Rubbished (Dismissed) | Guarded (Cautious) | Remunerative (Profitable) | Volatility (Instability) | Erratic (Unpredictable) | Bounteous (Abundant) | Procurement (Acquisition) | Alluded (Hinted) | Proactive (Preemptive) | Pitfalls (Hazards) | Susceptible (Vulnerable) | Exhausted (Depleted) | Prolific (Productive) | Tireless (Indefatigable) | Restlessness (Unease) | Aspired (Longed) | Stalwarts (Loyalists) | Advocated (Championed) | Pervasive (Widespread) | Reversals (Setbacks) | Reveal (Disclose) | Dedicated (Devoted) | Symbiotic (Mutualistic) | Companionship (Fellowship) | Cruelties (Brutalities) | Tentative (Hesitant) | Scavenging (Foraging) | Deformities (Malformations) | Domesticated (Tamed) | Abusive (Harmful) | Unintended (Unplanned) | Breeding (Propagation) | Contingent (Dependent) | Ascribed (Attributed) | Obligation (Duty) | Impasse (Deadlock) | Riparian (Riverside) | Codify (Systematise) | Reignited (Revived) | Disincentivising (Discouraging) | Decentralised (Devolved) | Confrontationist (Combative)

Idioms: Change one’s mind, Live out of a suitcase, Bite the hand that feeds it, Play truant

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