19 August 2026 | FREE Editorial PDF

Date: 19-Aug-2026

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

EDITORIAL 1: AWAITING ANSWERS: ON THE STUDENT PROTESTS IN JHARKHAND

Source: The Hindu

Vocabulary

Vocabs	Simple Meaning	Synonym	Antonym
Angst	A feeling of deep anxiety or dread, often about the state of affairs	Anxiety	Contentment
Simple Example: Angst and agitation are the natural results when avenues for advancement narrow and turn opaque.
Tainted	Contaminated, corrupted or spoiled in reputation	Corrupted	Untarnished
Simple Example: Aspirants said the entrance examination process had become tainted by irregularities.
Ostensibly	Apparently or seemingly so, though perhaps not actually the case	Apparently	Genuinely
Simple Example: The OMR sheet of an ostensibly successful candidate showed fewer than half the questions attempted.
Assuage	To make an unpleasant feeling less intense; to ease	Alleviate	Aggravate
Simple Example: The government hoped the exam cancellations would assuage the agitating students.
Eroded	Gradually diminished, worn away or destroyed over time	Diminished	Strengthened
Simple Example: Repeated irregularities have eroded students’ trust in the examination process.
Unpalatable	Unpleasant or difficult to accept	Distasteful	Agreeable
Simple Example: The government must concede the politically unpalatable demand for a CBI probe.
Bunched	Grouped or compressed closely together in time	Clustered	Spread out
Simple Example: Examination cycles in the State have often been bunched up, delaying results for years.
Concede	To admit or accept something, often reluctantly	Acknowledge	Refuse
Simple Example: The State government should concede the demand for an independent investigation.
Blacklisted	Officially banned or excluded because of disapproval or wrongdoing	Banned	Approved
Simple Example: The conducting agency had already been blacklisted in May 2025 before this year’s controversy.
Diversifies	Expands or varies the range of options available	Broadens	Narrows
Simple Example: Aspirants want a government that diversifies their options for gainful employment.

Idioms

Idiom	Actual Meaning	Simple Meaning
Leave someone in the lurch	To abandon someone in a difficult situation without help or support	To leave someone stranded when they needed help

EDITORIAL 2: LOSING FOREST FOR TREES: ON THE CAG’S AUDIT OF THE GREEN INDIA MISSION

Source: The Hindu

Vocabulary

Vocabs	Simple Meaning	Synonym	Antonym
Sequestration	The process of capturing and storing a substance, especially carbon	Capture	Release
Simple Example: The mission’s animating idea covered biodiversity, water, sequestration and the revival of habitat.
Convergence	The coming together of different funds, schemes or efforts toward one goal	Integration	Divergence
Simple Example: The Green India Mission’s intended convergence with other rural-employment schemes never materialised.
Degraded	Reduced in quality or condition, worn down over time	Deteriorated	Restored
Simple Example: The Aravallis are arguably the country’s most degraded range, its hillocks quarried away.
Encroachment	The gradual intrusion onto land or territory not one’s own	Intrusion	Withdrawal
Simple Example: Fresh planting alone cannot halt encroachment on already-damaged forest land.
Arboreal	Relating to trees	Tree-related	Non-woody
Simple Example: These arboreal conscripts cannot undo the damage from years of mining.
Ergo	Therefore; as a logical consequence	Therefore	Regardless
Simple Example: Ergo, India is planting more and foresting less, the editorial concludes.
Animating	Giving life, purpose or motivating spirit to something	Inspiring	Deadening
Simple Example: The mission’s animating idea was ecological — biodiversity, water and habitat revival.
Wither	To become weaker or shrivelled through neglect	Decline	Flourish
Simple Example: A mission to restore India’s forests has been allowed to wither while trees are merely counted.
Scrub	Low, stunted vegetation, often replacing what was once dense forest	Brushwood	Dense canopy
Simple Example: Within recorded forests, dense canopy is thinning into scrub.
Quarried	Extracted or dug out from the earth, especially stone	Excavated	Replaced
Simple Example: The Aravallis’ hillocks have been quarried away over decades of mining.

Idioms

Idiom	Actual Meaning	Simple Meaning
On the back burner	Given low priority; set aside for later attention	Put off or delayed on purpose

EDITORIAL 3: IN THE MARGINS OF OLD BOOKS, WHAT AI CANNOT REPLACE

Source: The Indian Express

Vocabulary

Vocabs	Simple Meaning	Synonym	Antonym
Revelations	Facts disclosed or made known, often surprising	Disclosures	Concealments
Simple Example: The surge in second-hand book sales follows recent revelations about Anthropic’s ‘Project Panama’.
Slump	A period of poor performance or decline	Downturn	Boom
Simple Example: The publishing industry is in a slump even as second-hand book sales climb.
Consolation	Comfort received after a disappointment or loss	Comfort	Distress
Simple Example: Looked at closely, the book-buying boom stands revealed as a false consolation.
Destructive	Causing great and often irreparable damage	Damaging	Constructive
Simple Example: AI can only consume books through a ‘destructive’ scanning process.
Digestion	The process of breaking something down and absorbing it	Absorption	Rejection
Simple Example: The editorial calls this process of AI training ‘digitisation by digestion’.
Revelatory	Serving to reveal something previously unknown or hidden	Illuminating	Concealing
Simple Example: Collectors are right about the revelatory beauty of marginalia in old books.
Serendipity	The occurrence of finding something valuable by happy accident	Chance discovery	Design
Simple Example: Second-hand books hold out the increasingly rare promise of serendipity.
Democratising	Making something accessible to ordinary people rather than a select few	Popularising	Restricting
Simple Example: The second-hand book industry was democratising knowledge long before AI existed.
Appetite	A strong desire or demand for something	Craving	Aversion
Simple Example: Only vast quantities of books can satisfy large language models’ appetite for data.
Ironically	In a way that is contrary to what would normally be expected	Paradoxically	Predictably
Simple Example: Ironically, AI-generated content has made the internet a low-quality source of information.

Idioms

No idioms found in the editorial.

EDITORIAL 4: WHEN DELHI UNIVERSITY CHOOSES TO SHRINK DELHI’S PAST

Source: The Indian Express

Vocabulary

Vocabs	Simple Meaning	Synonym	Antonym
Elective	An optional academic course chosen rather than compulsory	Optional course	Compulsory course
Simple Example: The removal of the elective paper on the Delhi Sultanate narrows students’ choices.
Disservice	An unhelpful or harmful action towards someone	Harm	Favour
Simple Example: Removing these papers does students a disservice, the editorial argues.
Narrowing	Making something more limited or restricted in range	Restricting	Widening
Simple Example: The syllabus changes are criticised for narrowing the choice made available to students.
Undermining	Weakening or damaging something gradually	Weakening	Reinforcing
Simple Example: Removing these papers risks undermining students’ ability to engage critically with history.
Persuasive	Able to convince others through reasoned argument	Convincing	Unconvincing
Simple Example: Chapters have been removed without sufficiently persuasive explanation, the editorial notes.
Historiographical	Relating to the study of how history is written and interpreted	Interpretive	Uninterpreted
Simple Example: Higher education should expose students to competing historiographical perspectives.
Continuum	A continuous sequence in which elements are not clearly separable	Continuous sequence	Discrete break
Simple Example: History is best approached as a continuum rather than a set of discrete episodes.
Siloes	Isolated compartments that do not interact with each other	Compartments	Integrated whole
Simple Example: This intricate tapestry of history cannot be reduced to neat siloes.
Tenuous	Weak or slight; barely holding together	Flimsy	Robust
Simple Example: The paper’s omission renders connections to a rich past more tenuous.
Storied	Celebrated in history or legend; having a notable past	Renowned	Obscure
Simple Example: A storied university such as Delhi University should trust its students with complexity.

Idioms

No idioms found in the editorial.

EDITORIAL 5: 60 DAYS LATER, A US-IRAN STALEMATE, A DISTURBING NEW NORMAL

Source: The Indian Express

Vocabulary

Vocabs	Simple Meaning	Synonym	Antonym
Unravel	To come apart or fail after initially appearing to hold together	Disintegrate	Consolidate
Simple Example: The MoU had begun to unravel over disagreements about how its terms should be interpreted.
Dislodge	To force out or remove from an established position	Displace	Entrench
Simple Example: The US has learned that bombing alone will not dislodge the hardline regime in Tehran.
Munitions	Military weapons, ammunition and equipment	Armaments	Disarmament
Simple Example: The editorial notes that the US is running low on munitions after months of strikes.
Oscillated	Moved repeatedly back and forth between two positions	Fluctuated	Stabilised
Simple Example: Trump’s position has oscillated between escalatory rhetoric and talk of a negotiated settlement.
Rescinded	Formally cancelled or revoked	Revoked	Reinstated
Simple Example: Washington has rescinded sanction waivers on Iranian oil in the international market.
Leverage	Power or advantage used to influence a situation or negotiation	Influence	Weakness
Simple Example: It remains to be seen whether either side can gain decisive leverage to negotiate a settlement.
Deadlock	A situation in which no progress can be made because neither side will give way	Impasse	Breakthrough
Simple Example: The deadlock between the US and Iran shows little sign of resolving soon.
Hostage	Held captive or constrained by circumstances beyond one’s control	Captive	Free
Simple Example: The rest of the world remains hostage to a conflict that neither side appears capable of ending.
Stalemate	A situation in which further action by either side seems impossible; a deadlock	Impasse	Resolution
Simple Example: Sixty days on, the US and Iran are locked in a disturbing new-normal stalemate.
Blockade	The isolating of a place by blocking access, often by military means	Siege	Free passage
Simple Example: Iran has effectively maintained a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz since late February.

Idioms

Idiom	Actual Meaning	Simple Meaning
Blink first	To be the first to show weakness or back down in a confrontation	To give in first in a standoff

Test Yourself — 5 Questions

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

Q1. Aspirants said the process of gaining entry through entrance examinations had become TAINTED, pointing to undisclosed cut-offs and an irregular merit list. Select the option that is the closest synonym of the word given in capitals as used in the passage.

(A) Corrupted   (B) Untarnished   (C) Pristine   (D) Flawless   (E) Spotless

Answer: A

Meaning: Tainted means contaminated or corrupted, spoiled in reputation. Logic: ‘Corrupted’ is its closest synonym. Elimination: Untarnished, Pristine, Flawless and Spotless all convey a clean, unblemished state, the opposite sense.

Q2. Identify the correctly spelt word among the options below.

(A) Sequestraion   (B) Sequesteration   (C) Sequestration   (D) Sequestrattion   (E) Siquestration

Answer: C

Meaning: Sequestration means the process of capturing and storing a substance, especially carbon. Logic: ‘Sequestration’ correctly spells the root ‘sequestr-‘ plus ‘-ation’. Elimination: the remaining options drop, double or substitute a letter incorrectly.

Q3. An OSTENSIBLY successful candidate’s OMR sheet showed fewer than half the questions attempted, aspirants pointed out. Select the option that is the closest synonym of the word given in capitals as used in the passage.

(A) Genuinely   (B) Apparently   (C) Conclusively   (D) Rarely   (E) Privately

Answer: B

Meaning: Ostensibly means apparently or seemingly so, though perhaps not actually the case. Logic: ‘Apparently’ is its closest synonym. Elimination: Genuinely and Conclusively convey certainty, while Rarely and Privately are unrelated senses.

Q4. The Green India Mission’s intended CONVERGENCE with rural employment-scheme funds never materialised, the audit found. Select the option that is the closest synonym of the word given in capitals as used in the passage.

(A) Divergence   (B) Separation   (C) Integration   (D) Isolation   (E) Dispersal

Answer: C

Meaning: Convergence means the coming together of different funds, schemes or efforts toward one goal. Logic: ‘Integration’ is its closest synonym. Elimination: Divergence, Separation, Isolation and Dispersal all convey moving apart, the opposite sense.

Q5. The government hoped the exam cancellations would ______ the anger of the agitating students, even if every grievance remained unresolved. Select the option that best fits the blank in the sentence.

(A) Provoke   (B) Inflame   (C) Ignite   (D) Assuage   (E) Aggravate

Answer: D

Meaning: ‘Assuage’ means to make an unpleasant feeling less intense, to ease, matching the editorial’s account of the government’s response. Logic: fits the sense of easing agitation. Elimination: Provoke, Inflame, Ignite and Aggravate all convey worsening the anger, the opposite sense.

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

Quick Recap — Today’s Words

Angst (Anxiety) | Tainted (Corrupted) | Ostensibly (Apparently) | Assuage (Alleviate) | Eroded (Diminished) | Unpalatable (Distasteful) | Bunched (Clustered) | Concede (Acknowledge) | Blacklisted (Banned) | Diversifies (Broadens) | Sequestration (Capture) | Convergence (Integration) | Degraded (Deteriorated) | Encroachment (Intrusion) | Arboreal (Tree-related) | Ergo (Therefore) | Animating (Inspiring) | Wither (Decline) | Scrub (Brushwood) | Quarried (Excavated) | Revelations (Disclosures) | Slump (Downturn) | Consolation (Comfort) | Destructive (Damaging) | Digestion (Absorption) | Revelatory (Illuminating) | Serendipity (Chance discovery) | Democratising (Popularising) | Appetite (Craving) | Ironically (Paradoxically) | Elective (Optional course) | Disservice (Harm) | Narrowing (Restricting) | Undermining (Weakening) | Persuasive (Convincing) | Historiographical (Interpretive) | Continuum (Continuous sequence) | Siloes (Compartments) | Tenuous (Flimsy) | Storied (Renowned) | Unravel (Disintegrate) | Dislodge (Displace) | Munitions (Armaments) | Oscillated (Fluctuated) | Rescinded (Revoked) | Leverage (Influence) | Deadlock (Impasse) | Hostage (Captive) | Stalemate (Impasse) | Blockade (Siege)

Idioms: Leave someone in the lurch, On the back burner, Blink first

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