Synonyms — High-Frequency Word List Set 2 (F–L)

Synonyms — High-Frequency Word List Set 2 (F–L)

This chapter covers 50 words beginning with the letters F to L that appear repeatedly in SSC, RRB and Banking synonym questions. As with the previous chapter, the words are grouped into thematic clusters rather than a plain alphabetical list: words about honesty and pretence, words about danger and difficulty, words about manner and temperament, words about talk and sociability, and words about ability and value. Each entry gives the part of speech, a precise one-line meaning, one or two dependable synonyms, and a natural example sentence. Read a full theme group at a time and try to link the words to each other rather than memorising them as isolated items. As you go through this range, notice how many F–L words describe temperament and manner rather than physical objects — that is not a coincidence, since character description is one of the richest sources of vocabulary questions in SSC and Banking English papers, appearing in synonym MCQs, in reading comprehension passages built around a person's conduct, and inside error-spotting questions where a wrongly chosen character-word is the planted mistake.

Words About Honesty, Pretence and Deception

This cluster covers words describing whether a person or statement is genuine, deceptive, or secretly motivated — a frequent theme in both synonym questions and reading comprehension passages about character.

Word	Part of Speech	Meaning	Synonym(s)	Example Sentence
Fabricate	verb	to invent false information, presenting it as true	concoct, invent	He was accused of fabricating evidence against his rival.
Facetious	adjective	treating serious issues with inappropriate or flippant humour	flippant, jocular	His facetious remarks annoyed the selection panel.
Flimsy	adjective	weak and easily damaged; unconvincing when used of an excuse	fragile, weak	He offered a flimsy excuse for arriving late.
Frank	adjective	open and honest in expression	candid, forthright	To be frank, I did not enjoy the film at all.
Furtive	adjective	done secretly or stealthily, to avoid notice	stealthy, secretive	He cast a furtive glance at his neighbour's answer sheet.
Genuine	adjective	truly what it is said to be; sincere	authentic, real	She showed genuine concern for the flood victims.
Gullible	adjective	easily deceived or tricked	naive, credulous	Con artists usually target gullible investors.
Hypocrite	noun	a person who acts contrary to the beliefs they claim to hold	pretender, fraud	He was called a hypocrite for preaching honesty while cheating clients.
Inadvertent	adjective	not resulting from careful thought; unintentional	unintentional, accidental	The error in the report was inadvertent, not deliberate.
Lucid	adjective	expressed clearly and easy to understand	clear, coherent	He gave a lucid explanation of a complicated theorem.

Words About Danger, Difficulty and Risk

These words describe situations that are risky, harmful or hard to manage — common in cloze passages about disasters, safety and difficult decisions.

Word	Part of Speech	Meaning	Synonym(s)	Example Sentence
Feasible	adjective	possible to do easily or conveniently	practicable, viable	The plan seems feasible within the given budget.
Forlorn	adjective	pitifully sad and abandoned; hopeless	desolate, wretched	The forlorn puppy waited outside the locked gate.
Fragile	adjective	easily broken, damaged or weakened	delicate, brittle	Handle the glassware carefully; it is extremely fragile.
Hazardous	adjective	risky; likely to cause harm	dangerous, risky	Working at that site without safety gear is hazardous.
Impede	verb	to delay or obstruct progress	hinder, obstruct	Heavy rain impeded the rescue operation for hours.
Imperative	adjective	extremely important or urgent; not to be ignored	urgent, essential	It is imperative to submit the application before the deadline.
Incessant	adjective	continuing without stopping or pausing	continuous, ceaseless	The incessant noise from the construction site disturbed the patients.
Intricate	adjective	very complicated or detailed	complex, elaborate	The lock had an intricate mechanism that took hours to open.
Jubilant	adjective	feeling or expressing great happiness after a success	elated, joyful	The fans were jubilant after their team's dramatic victory.
Lucrative	adjective	producing a great deal of profit	profitable, gainful	She left her old job for a more lucrative offer.

Words About Manner and Temperament

This group covers words describing how a person acts or reacts — hasty, calm, stubborn, generous and so on — one of the most heavily tested categories in this alphabetical range.

Word	Part of Speech	Meaning	Synonym(s)	Example Sentence
Fervent	adjective	having or showing intense passion or enthusiasm	passionate, ardent	He is a fervent supporter of the education reforms.
Flamboyant	adjective	showy, confident and eye-catching in style or behaviour	showy, extravagant	The singer is known for his flamboyant stage costumes.
Frugal	adjective	careful and sparing in the use of money or resources	thrifty, economical	Her frugal habits helped the family save for a house.
Gallant	adjective	brave and heroic; chivalrous toward others	brave, courageous	The gallant soldier risked his life to save his comrades.
Gracious	adjective	courteous, kind and warm toward others	courteous, kindly	The host was gracious to every single guest at the wedding.
Grave	adjective	serious or solemn in nature or manner	serious, solemn	The doctor's expression suggested grave news for the family.
Haphazard	adjective	lacking order or organisation; done at random	random, disorganised	The old files were arranged in a haphazard manner.
Hasty	adjective	done with excessive speed and little thought	rash, hurried	He regretted the hasty decision he made under pressure.
Haughty	adjective	arrogantly superior and disdainful toward others	arrogant, snobbish	Her haughty manner offended most of the other guests.
Humble	adjective	having a modest view of one's own importance	modest, unassuming	Despite his enormous success, he remained humble and approachable.
Impetuous	adjective	acting or done quickly and without careful thought	rash, impulsive	His impetuous behaviour often lands him in trouble.
Judicious	adjective	having or showing good judgment; sensible	prudent, sensible	She made a judicious use of her limited savings.
Keen	adjective	having or showing eagerness or enthusiasm	eager, enthusiastic	He is keen on learning a new language every year.
Lavish	adjective	sumptuously rich, elaborate and generous	extravagant, sumptuous	They held a lavish wedding ceremony for their daughter.
Lethargic	adjective	sluggish and lacking energy or enthusiasm	sluggish, listless	The afternoon heat made everyone in the office feel lethargic.

Words About Talk, Sociability and Company

This smaller cluster covers words used to describe how people talk or relate to others in social settings.

Word	Part of Speech	Meaning	Synonym(s)	Example Sentence
Garrulous	adjective	excessively talkative, especially about unimportant things	talkative, chatty	The garrulous old man kept everyone waiting at the bus stop.
Gregarious	adjective	fond of the company of others; sociable	sociable, outgoing	He is gregarious and makes new friends wherever he goes.
Grievance	noun	a real or imagined wrong that causes resentment or complaint	complaint, grudge	Workers raised their grievance directly with the management.
Hostile	adjective	unfriendly, antagonistic or opposed	antagonistic, unfriendly	The two neighbouring countries maintained a hostile relationship for decades.
Hesitant	adjective	slow to act or speak because of uncertainty	reluctant, uncertain	She was hesitant to sign the contract without legal advice.
Insolent	adjective	showing a rude and disrespectful lack of respect	rude, impertinent	The insolent reply shocked the entire classroom.

Words About Ability, Effort and Value

These words describe skill, industriousness or worth — frequently tested alongside one-word substitutions for professions and achievements.

Word	Part of Speech	Meaning	Synonym(s)	Example Sentence
Gigantic	adjective	of very great size; enormous	huge, enormous	A gigantic statue stands at the entrance of the temple.
Idle	adjective	not working or in use; avoiding useful activity	inactive, lazy	The machines stood idle for want of urgent repair.
Ignorant	adjective	lacking knowledge or awareness of something	uninformed, unaware	He was ignorant of the new tax regulations.
Immense	adjective	extremely large in size, degree or amount	huge, vast	The project required immense effort and financial resources.
Impartial	adjective	treating all sides or people equally; unbiased	unbiased, neutral	The judge remained impartial throughout the entire trial.
Indolent	adjective	wanting to avoid activity or exertion; lazy	lazy, slothful	The indolent clerk kept delaying every single file.
Ingenious	adjective	clever, original and inventive in solving problems	inventive, resourceful	She devised an ingenious solution using scrap materials.
Innate	adjective	inborn; existing naturally rather than learned	inborn, inherent	He has an innate talent for music that no one taught him.
Intrepid	adjective	fearless and adventurous, especially in difficult situations	fearless, bold	The intrepid explorer crossed the desert entirely alone.
Novice	noun	a person new to a skill, job or activity	beginner, amateur	As a novice, she made a few understandable mistakes at first.

Common Traps to Watch For in This Word Set

• Frank vs Facetious: Both involve speaking openly, but "frank" means sincerely honest, while "facetious" means joking inappropriately about something serious. Exams sometimes offer one as a wrong-answer trap for the other.
• Hasty vs Impetuous: Very close in meaning, but "hasty" usually describes a single rushed decision, while "impetuous" describes a person's general tendency to act without thought — useful to know when a question asks for the "best fit" rather than a loose match.
• Gregarious vs Garrulous: "Gregarious" means sociable and fond of company; "garrulous" means excessively talkative. A person can be gregarious without being garrulous, so do not treat them as interchangeable.
• Genuine vs Gullible: These sound like they might be related because both begin with a similar sound pattern, but they describe opposite qualities — "genuine" is about sincerity, "gullible" is about being easily fooled.
• Imperative as noun vs adjective: As an adjective, "imperative" means urgent or essential; in grammar, an "imperative sentence" is a command. Exams occasionally test the grammar sense inside sentence-structure questions rather than vocabulary questions, so note the context.
• Ingenious vs Ingenuous: A classic exam trap pair — "ingenious" means cleverly inventive, while "ingenuous" (not covered as a separate headword here but worth remembering) means innocent and unsuspecting. The two are almost opposite in feel despite looking nearly identical in spelling.
• Judicious vs Judgmental: "Judicious" means showing sound, careful judgment when making a decision; "judgmental" means being unfairly critical of other people. A judicious manager weighs evidence fairly, while a judgmental colleague jumps to harsh conclusions — the two words are not synonyms despite sharing the same root.

Memory Aids for the Trickier Words

• Fabricate — think of a "fabric" being woven from threads; to fabricate a story is to weave it together from invented details.
• Gregarious — from Latin "grex," meaning "flock" or "herd," the same root as "gregarious" cousin words about groups; a gregarious person naturally moves with the flock.
• Hazardous — connect it directly to "hazard," a known danger; anything hazardous creates a hazard.
• Indolent — pair it with its opposite root sense: "in-" (not) plus a root related to "pain" or "effort" in Latin, so an indolent person avoids the pain of exertion.
• Lucid and Lucrative — both come from Latin roots related to "light" and "gain" respectively; a lucid explanation "sheds light," while a lucrative deal brings financial gain. Keep them separate by remembering lucid is about clarity of thought, lucrative is about money.

Seeing These Words in Exam-Style Context

Word lists are most useful once you can recognise a word doing its job inside a full sentence rather than sitting alone in a table. The short passages below use several words from this chapter together, the way a reading comprehension extract or cloze test might.

"The new manager's frank and gracious manner won over even the most hesitant members of staff within a week. Where her predecessor had been haughty and prone to hasty, impetuous decisions, she was judicious and consulted the team before making any major change. Colleagues who had expected a difficult transition instead found the process surprisingly lucid: every policy was explained clearly, and grievances were addressed rather than dismissed."

"Setting up the new factory in a hazardous, flood-prone area seemed feasible only because the engineers proposed an ingenious drainage design. Some board members remained hesitant, calling the plan flimsy at best, but the eventual results proved lucrative enough to silence most of the doubters."

Notice how "frank," "gracious," "hesitant," "haughty," "hasty," "impetuous," "judicious," "lucid" and "grievances" all sit naturally together in the first passage because they share the theme of manner and temperament — exactly the grouping used earlier in this chapter. The second passage mixes words from the danger/difficulty and ability/value clusters in the same way. Practising this kind of cross-reading is one of the fastest ways to move a word from passive recognition to active exam-ready recall.

Quick Test Yourself

Attempt these questions before moving to the next chapter, then check your answers against the key below.

1. The word most similar in meaning to FRANK is: (a) Facetious (b) Candid (c) Furtive (d) Hostile
2. Fill in the blank: The company's finances made a highly ______ offer impossible to refuse. (lucrative / lethargic / forlorn / hasty)
3. The word most similar in meaning to IMPARTIAL is: (a) Biased (b) Unbiased (c) Hostile (d) Gullible
4. Fill in the blank: He gave an ______ explanation that made the complex theorem easy to follow. (intricate / lucid / garrulous / hazardous)
5. The word most similar in meaning to GALLANT is: (a) Cowardly (b) Brave (c) Idle (d) Gullible
6. Fill in the blank: Investors were warned that the scheme was ______ and could collapse without notice. (hazardous / gracious / genuine / judicious)
7. The word most similar in meaning to HAUGHTY is: (a) Humble (b) Arrogant (c) Frugal (d) Keen
8. Fill in the blank: The clerk's ______ approach meant important files were often delayed for weeks. (indolent / ingenious / fervent / gallant)
9. The word most similar in meaning to INTREPID is: (a) Timid (b) Fearless (c) Idle (d) Ignorant
10. Fill in the blank: A ______ decision taken without thinking led to the accident. (hasty / judicious / gracious / lucid)

Answer key: 1) Candid; 2) lucrative; 3) Unbiased; 4) lucid; 5) Brave; 6) hazardous; 7) Arrogant; 8) indolent; 9) Fearless; 10) hasty.

As with the previous chapter, this F–L list is paired with the F–L antonym list in Chapter 7. Once these 50 words feel familiar, test yourself in reverse: what is the opposite of "frugal"? Of "gregarious"? Of "impartial"? Answering quickly in both directions is the real test of whether a word has become part of your working vocabulary rather than a fact you memorised once and will forget under exam pressure.

One more habit worth building now: whenever you meet a new F–L word in a newspaper editorial or a practice paper that is not on this list, write it down with its meaning and one example sentence in the same format used throughout this chapter. By the time you reach the Quick Revision Glossary in Chapter 29, your own additions to this alphabetical range will often matter as much as the core 50 words presented here, because they will be the words you personally struggled to remember — and those are exactly the ones most likely to trip you up in the exam hall if left unrevised.