How To Prepare Vocabulary for IPMAT & NPAT 2025

Overview: Whether you are preparing for IPMAT or NPAT, you need to have a strong grip on the subject in order to crack the examination. Here we have listed various ways to prepare and improve your vocabulary section step by step. Learn how to prepare vocabulary for IPMAT and NPAT effectively.

Vocabulary is one of the crucial segments of the English language, and if you are preparing for competitive exams like IPMAT and NPAT, you can find at least 10-15 questions in previous year's papers based on synonyms, antonyms, spelling errors, fill-in blanks, etc.

You cannot master vocabulary section in one day; it requires daily practice and love for the language. 

Here is the list of fundamental techniques that will also help you understand and comprehend the meaning of those new unheard words!

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Yes, you can do it all by yourself, and you do not need to memorize the entire dictionary. 

Go through these tips and learn how to prepare vocabulary for IPMAT & NPAT. Below is a list of techniques to master vocabulary for IPMAT & NPAT.

• Clustering Techniques
• Learn Words Through Mnemonics
• Words Etymology
• Visual Recognition

We also recommend practising questions for IPMAT & NPAT 2025, given at the end of this article.

Best Tips to Prepare Vocabulary for NPAT & IPMAT 2025

Most competitive exams have an English language section; ideally, scoring in these sections is quite easy. Hence, preparing vocabulary for IPMAT and NPAT is crucial to boosting your overall score. 

In general, the verbal ability part is the simplest, with around 80% of the questions ranging from easy to moderate in difficulty.

Here are some of the best ways to learn vocabulary for IPMAT & NPAT are mentioned.

1. Learn Words Through Mnemonics

In this method, we associate words with a mnemonic to remember the definition and proper use.

For example, “Adage” means wise saying (proverb); we can associate adage with age, as wise saying comes with age.

Word	Meaning	Mnemonics
Abase	To let someone down	We can relate it with base meaning down.
Anguish	Severe mental or physical pain or suffering	Anguish is related to Angry+u+ish; Anger can cause pain and suffering to you. I am still in anguish that I lost my father last year.
Assiduous	Diligent	Assiduous is related to Ass, like working hard like an ass.
Acclaim	Praise, applaud	Acclaim can be related to a claim, like claiming for things you have done.
Axiom	Self-truth	Axiom is related to the word om; According to Hindu mythology, the om is the biggest truth (self-truth) i.e. Axiom.
Belligerent	Hostile, aggressive	Belligerent is remembered as a bully, which reminds us of the harsh and aggressive behavior of someone.
Alienate	To cause to turn away; make hostile; separate	Alienate is related to the alien, meaning stranger; to alienate is to make someone turn hostile or feel alienated.
Allay	To calm the violence or reduce the intensity; mitigate	Allay is related to All Okay! Just keep calm; everything is okay.
Ambrosia	The food of God is something very pleasing to taste or smell.	Ambrosia is related to Amber (Hindu god) and rasoiya(Cook in Hindi), so the food of god, or something that you like very much.
Animosity	Hatred	Animosity is related to enmity; just imagine a city where you can see only people fighting with each other. Treat them like Animals!! or pronounce animosity like 'Enemy's City.
Irik	To afflict with pain, vexation, or fatigue	Irk is related to irritation; you irritate or annoy someone. ”It irks him that his peers do not feel as strongly.”
Loiter	Hang around	Loiter is related to the looter; looter loiters(hangs around), then they loot.
Anathema	Something regarded as a curse	Anathema can be related to ANgry At THEM Always. A life of Anathema.
Amiss	Wrong, faulty	Amiss is related to A Miss, something that has gone awry in our plans. For example - if you think him guilty, you judge amiss.
Flaunt	Display ostentatiously	Flaunt is related to Aunt, Flaunting of things ostentatiously by aunts.
Admonish	To warn of a fault	Admonish is related to money and punishment. For example - my mom continually scolds me for everything.

2. Clustering Techniques

Learning words in groups or clusters, like clusters of words, means almost the same but differ in intensity.

For example, Abhor, Detest, Hate, Loathe, and Abominate are related to dislike with different intensities. 

Dislike	Abhor, Detest, Hate, Loathe, Abominate
Abandon	Evacuate, Leave, Quit, Vacate, Withdraw from
Abide	Accept, Bear, Endure, Put up with, Tolerate, suffer
Abolish	Abrogate, Annul, Delete, Destroy, Dispense with, Do away with, Eliminate, eradicate
Acceptable	Agreeable, gratifying, worthwhile, passable, satisfactory
Aggressive	Antagonistic, assertive, bellicose, belligerent, hostile
Agreement	Accord, compatibility, concord, conformity, consent
Allegation	Accusation, assertion, charge, claim, declaration

3. Words Etymology

One of the best ways to learn vocabulary for IPMAT and NPAT is by understanding the given word and the root of the word. This means every given word is formed of a root to which we can add suffixes and prefixes to form new words.

Learning just one root word can help you understand several words in English. So, by learning just 20 or 30 root words, you can expand your English vocabulary for IPMAT and NPAT to include hundreds of new words.

A root can be any part of a word that carries meaning: the beginning, middle, or end. The prefix appears at the beginning of a word, the base in the middle, and the suffix at the end.

Most English root words came from the Greek and Latin languages.

For example, the base word “struct-.” It comes from the Latin word meaning “build.” 

• Any English word you hear containing “struct-”* will relate to building, developing, or creating something. By itself, “struct” is not a word, but it is the basis for many words in English.
• For example, the word “construct” is a verb that means “to build.” The prefix “con” means “together” or “with.” So, "construct" means to put things together to build or create something. 
• Adding suffixes to “struct-” creates additional words. For example, adding “-ion” in English makes verbs into nouns. When we add "-ion" to “construct," we get "construction," which means the process, or act, of building something. 
• Adding the suffix “-ing” to “construct” makes “constructing.” 
• Adding the suffix “-ive” to make “constructive” gives us the adjective form and means helpful in developing or improving something.

Root	Words
EGO Latin word meaning ‘I’	Egoist: one who believes in self-advancement; selfish
	Egotist: One who excessively talks about his own accomplishments; A person who is excessively conceited or absorbed in themselves; self-seeker
	Alter Ego: one’s other self, like an alias.
	Egocentric: self centered
ALTER Latin word meaning “other”’	Altruism: philosophy of selfness, concern for the well-being of others above one's own.
	Altruistic: interested in the welfare of others
	Alteration: A change
	Alter Ego: One’s own self
	To alternate: to take one, skip one.
	Alternative: A choice

4. Visual Recognition

We, as humans, can recall those things that we have seen visually and for a longer period of time. You will always remember phrases that make you think of anything aesthetically beautiful.

Interestingly, information and expertise given via the use of those items would have been kept in our memory to this day. As a result, visual learning is a valuable and successful technique.

1. Ebullient:- cheerful and full of energy
2. Robust:- strong and healthy; vigorous.
3. Perplexed:- completely baffled; very puzzled. Example - “she gave him a perplexed look”
4. Sanguine:- optimistic or positive

5. Verbal Ability Preparation Tips for Vocabulary For IPMAT & NPAT 2025

The verbal ability section plays a vital role in qualifying for any one of these entrance exams. The following are some of the best preparation tips to crack the verbal ability section in IPMAT and NPAT exams.

• Read the newspaper regularly for about 1-1.5 hours, preferably from the editorial section of The Hindu, Times of India, or Decan Herald within the specified limit, to prepare you for the time management required in the exam.
• While reading, underline the important things and try to think about the questions that can be framed.
• Apart from academic books, reference books like Word Power Made Easy by Normal Lewis and Martin English Grammar and Composition would provide you with a plus point in the Verbal Ability section. 
• Note down all the difficult words in a revision notebook, and when you come across a word that has a similar or opposite meaning to a word you have already noted down, then add that word in front of that word. This is the best way to crack synonyms and antonyms.
• Try to learn at least ten new words daily and note down the meaning and example of each word you find unfamiliar or difficult to remember. This is the best way to cover Synonyms and Antonyms.
• Make sentences out of the idioms/phrases, and this trick will help remember what was learned.
• Practice as many mock tests and previous year papers as possible to crack the exam comfortably. Also, a set of repeated questions will be asked each year in the exam from the previous year's papers, so it will be easier to score marks in the exam.

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Important Vocabulary for IPMAT and NPAT Questions 2025

To help you get an idea about the type of questions asked in these exams, we have curated a few essential vocabularies for IPMAT & NPAT from the previous year's questions papers for IPMAT.

Directions (1- 2) Choose the most appropriate option to make the sentence complete and meaningful.

Q1. Retail fetters customer good companies which are having a free run is exploiting___ customers will have to be more transparent while doing business.

• a. Knowledgeable;
• b.gullible
• c. difficult
• d. Fussy

Answer: B

Q2. The cloning technique is in its infancy and is ____ with problems, both medical and ethical.

• a. fraught
• b. revealed
• c. framed
• d.established

Answer: A

Directions (3 - 5) Find the correct option having either the same or opposite meaning

Q.3 Eccentric 

• a. Weirdo
• b. Altruism
• c. dacoit
• d. Ascetic

Answer: A

Q4. Coup 

• a. Aversion
• b. Massacre
• c. status quo
• d. Fratricide

Answer: D 

Q.5 jingoism

• a. Nepotism
• b.egoism
• c. chauvinism
• d. Darwinism

Answer: C

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Q6. Select the option that is NOT an antonym of another word by way of adding the prefix ‘in-’. 

• a. Ineligible
• b. Inhibit  
• c. Infrequent
• d. Indecent 

Answer: B

Q 7. Select the option that is NOT an antonym of another word by way of adding the prefix ‘un-’.

• a. Unaccountable
• b. Unabashed
• c. Unanimous
• d. Unequivocal

Answer: C

Q 8. One who is ____________ _ gets on with his job in spite of obstacles, while the one who is __________ hardly shows any progress. The latter spends all his time ___________ about his troubles. 

• a. artful, doubtful, speaking
• b. assiduous, querulous, whining
• c. hardworking, dishonest, gossiping
• d. hotheaded, scared, crying Question

Answer: B

Indirect Vocabulary for IPMAT and NPAT Based Questions 2025

Read the following passage and choose the answer closest to each of the questions based on the passage.

As I write this essay, I am overwhelmed by what human beings can accomplish given time and space. As I look through my window, planes are flying over smoke that lazily ascends from the industries beneath them; vehicles fill every available space along the streets as the news reports another successful rocket launch on its mission to Mars. If only the views of the unborn mind could be trusted, I would have been born centuries earlier. In the current world that is driven by fear over global climate changes, global warming, global economic recession, and global terrorism amidst a host of many other global concerns, I cannot help but bury my head in the peaceful moments experienced only during the dinosaurs' age. Though that age is considered by many as having been uncivilized and backward, the generations lived in a serene, enclosed, and self-contained environment. For example, a cure for most of the human health challenges was at reach within the households' unpolluted gardens, and the weapons of mass destruction did not exist.

Q 1. What is the tone of the author in this passage? 

• a. Appreciative
• b. Pessimistic
• c. Sardonic
• d. Sarcastic

Answer: B

Q 2. Which word is the opposite of anxious used in the passage? 

• a. uncivilised
• b. Serene
• c. destruction
• d. overwhelmed

Answer: B

Q 3. Which word used in the paragraph is the best synonym for the swamp? 

• a. Ascend
• b. Enclosed
• c. Amidst
• d. Overwhelmed

Answer: D

As defined by the geographer Yi-Fu Tuan, topophilia is the affective bond between people and place. His 1974 book set forth a wide-ranging exploration of how the emotive ties with the material environment vary greatly from person to person and in intensity, subtlety, and mode of expression. Factors influencing one’s depth of response to the environment include cultural background, gender, race, and historical circumstance, and Tuan also argued that there is a biological and sensory elements. Topophilia might not be the strongest of human emotions— indeed, many people feel utterly indifferent toward the environments that shape their lives— but when activated, it has the power to elevate a place to become the carrier of emotionally charged events or to be perceived as a symbol.

Q 4. The word “topophobia” in the passage is used:

1. To represent a feeling of dread towards particular spaces and places.
2. To signify the fear of studying the complex discipline of topography.
3. As a metaphor expressing the failure of the homeland to accommodate non-citizens.
4. To signify feelings of fear or anxiety towards topophilia people.

Previous year Vocabulary Questions for IPMAT and NPAT 2025

The following are some of the important questions that are collected from the previous year's question papers

Q1. Quantum Physics really begins to point to this discovery. It says that you can’t have a universe without a mind _______ into it and that the mind is actually _______ the very thing that is being _______.

• a) getting, creating, acknowledged
• b) intruding, making, construed
• c) entering, shaping, perceived
• d) penetrating, forming, seen

Answer: C

Q2. In response to my friend’s request, I decided to write her a letter, which I hoped would be honest and practical, while also serving as a ________ of sorts for my own feminist thinking. This book is a ________ of that letter, with some details changed.

• a) Map, version
• b) chart, form
• c) base, fallout
• d) guide, precise

Answer: D

Q 3. That the artiste went about systematically to get traditional __________ and designs back into the mainstream and __________ a textile culture for dance is to be celebrated.

• a) practices, processed
• b) motifs, created
• c) totems evolved
• d) stories, described

Answer: B

Q 4. The ________ of multiculturalism, in times of war or economic _________, tribalism is what causes those powers to confine groups of people with different _________ into ghettos or communes on the margins of their cities.

• a) rise, doldrums, ideologis
• b) Tyranny, growth, habits
• c) antithesis, prosperity, persuasions
• d) opposite, distress, ethnicities 

Answer: C

Q5. One who is _________ gets on with his job in spite of obstacles, while the one who is _________ hardly shows any progress. The latter spreads all his time _________ about his troubles.

• a) Artful, doubtful, speaking
• b) Assiduous, querulous, whining
• c) hardworking, dishonest, gossiping
• d) hotheaded, scared, crying

Answer: B

Q 6. Few look forward to old age and all that it brings in its wake - deteriorating health, loss of vigour, restricted mobility, increasing dependence on others, not to mention a sense of foreboding and anxiety. Yet, one has to learn to cope with the onset of old age. Firstly, it is imperative to prepare to accept old age in spite of the restrictions or limitations it imposes on one's mobility. Equally important is the need to adopt a positive attitude towards life. ___________________ Above all, peace of mind is the efficacious balm that brings equanimity to one's life. We must resign ourselves to growing old, and in the process, let us try to make life as fulfilling and meaningful as possible.

• a) The role of humour and fun are indispensable as these are the spice of life and are guaranteed to bring cheer and bonhomie, besides keeping one's mind off life's grim realities.
• b) Owing to advances in medical science, we can now expect to live well beyond 90 years.
• c) Physical debility and stiffening body joints 'creaking' in protest may make mobility difficult - something one should learn to take in one's stride stoically.
• d) Turning nostalgic and recalling 'those good old days when they were young, and life was radically different from what it is today helps one accept old age.

Answer: A

Q 7. ________________________ Infrastructure, in the form of paved surfaces, disrupts water absorption and lowers water retention. This leads to disastrous levels of flooding which diminishes biodiversity and impoverishes the people of the region. Land should be used mindfully to prevent waterlogging during heavy rains.

• a) Climate change is not the only cause of flooding.
• b) Flooding can happen after heavy or low rainfall.
• c) Infrastructure can actually cause a lot of trouble during flooding.
• d) Water retention is less important to prevent flooding.

Answer: A

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Q 8. Read the following passage and choose the answer that is closest to each of the questions that are based on the passage.

The perennial debate over gender differences threatens to remain inconclusive. Stereotypes pertaining to male superiority and female submissiveness could be traced to earlier ages when assigned roles were needed as survival measures. But, can we today see a swing away from these stereotypes, or have they established a stranglehold on our perceptions? In this gendered world, we continue to live with notions that one's gender determines one's skills and preferences, from toys and colours to career choices. So the girl child will be presented with a Barbie doll, while the boy child will receive a Lego set.

Does that mean that our brains are different? This myth has been exploded by a British professor of cognitive neuroimaging. Her research attempts to establish how these stereotypes mould our ideas of ourselves. She examines how science has been misinterpreted or misused to ask the wrong questions instead of challenging the status quo. She urges us to move beyond a binary view of people's brains and instead to see these as highly individualized, profoundly adaptable, and full of unbounded potential. Her conclusive findings establish that no brain differences can be found that are solely gender-related. In other words, modern neuroscientists have identified no decisive category-defining differences between the brains of men and women.

1. The synonym for 'stranglehold' (Para 1) is

• a) asphyxiation
• b) containment
• c) prohibiting entry
• d) overwhelming control

Answer: D

2. The antonym for 'unbounded' (Para 2) is

• a) imprisoned
• b) aggressive
• c) restricted
• d) fearful

Answer: C

The question 'how to improve vocabulary for competitive exams?' always arise in the minds of aspirants. The answer is simple, just follow the simple tips and practice a lot.

Best Preparation Strategies from IPMAT and NPAT Toppers

Preparation Strategy for Vocabulary for IPMAT and NPAT

Mastering vocabulary is essential for excelling in the IPMAT and NPAT exams, which typically feature 10-15 vocabulary-based questions. This section provides expert techniques to enhance your vocabulary preparation.

Key Techniques to Master Vocabulary

1. Learn Words Through Mnemonics: Use mnemonics to associate words with memorable phrases or stories.
Examples:

• Adage: Wise saying – associate with "age" (wisdom comes with age).
• Belligerent: Hostile – think of a "bully."

2. Clustering Techniques: Group similar words to understand varying intensities.
Examples:

• Dislike: Abhor, Detest, Hate, Loathe, Abominate.

3. Words Etymology: Learn root words, often from Greek and Latin, to expand your vocabulary.
Examples:

• Struct- (build): Construct, Construction, Constructive.
• Ego (I): Egoist, Egotist, Alter Ego.

4. Visual Recognition: Use visual aids to help remember word meanings.
Examples:

• Ebullient: Cheerful and energetic.
• Perplexed: Completely baffled.

Verbal Ability Preparation Tips

1. Daily Reading: Read newspapers like The Hindu and Times of India for 1-1.5 hours, focusing on the editorial section.
2. Reference Books: Use "Word Power Made Easy" by Norman Lewis and "Martin English Grammar and Composition" to build vocabulary.
3. Vocabulary Notebook: Maintain a notebook for difficult words, noting meanings, synonyms, antonyms, and example sentences.
4. Daily Word Learning: Learn at least ten new words daily and use them in sentences.
5. Idioms and Phrases: Practice using idioms and phrases in sentences for contextual understanding.
6. Mock Tests and Previous Papers: Regularly practice mock tests and previous year’s question papers to familiarize yourself with the exam pattern.

Important Vocabulary Practice

1. Synonyms and Antonyms: Regular practice of synonyms and antonyms to understand nuances in meanings.
2. Contextual Usage: Practice passage-based questions to improve comprehension and inference skills.
3. Indirect Vocabulary Questions: Engage with passages and related questions to deduce meanings from context.

To summarize, mastering vocabulary for the IPMAT and NPAT is important for scoring high in the verbal ability section. You can acquire a strong vocabulary by practicing consistently and using strategic approaches like mnemonics, clustering, and understanding word roots. Regular reading and practice with mock tests will help you prepare even more effectively. With perseverance and the appropriate strategy, you can perform well in the vocabulary component of these difficult tests.

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Key Takeaways:

• Use Mnemonics: Associating words with memorable phrases or stories helps in retaining their meanings.
• Cluster Similar Words: Grouping words with similar meanings aids in understanding their nuances.
• Understand Etymology: Learning root words, prefixes, and suffixes can expand your vocabulary significantly.
• Daily Reading: Regularly read newspapers and maintain a vocabulary notebook to build and reinforce your word knowledge.
• Practice with Mock Tests: Regularly engage with mock tests and previous year’s papers to familiarize yourself with the exam pattern and improve time management.