Question

Choose the word that is most OPPOSITE in meaning to the word given in capitals.

PERNICIOUS

• A. Innocuous
• B. Healthy
• C. Hygienic
• D. Fine

Hint:

Pernicious means causing serious, often slow harm. Look for the option describing a beneficial, wholesome state rather than just the absence of harm.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

A quick way to crack an antonym question is to first build a simple sentence with the given word, then test each option in that same sentence to see which one flips the meaning completely. Take the sentence: Smoking has a pernicious effect on the lungs, meaning smoking damages the lungs slowly and seriously.

1. Innocuous: Smoking has an innocuous effect on the lungs would mean smoking causes no damage at all. This flips the sentence, but only to a neutral, harm free state, not to a positive one.
2. Healthy: Smoking has a healthy effect on the lungs would mean smoking actively improves the lungs. This is a full reversal, from serious damage to active benefit, which is the strongest possible contrast to pernicious.
3. Hygienic: Smoking has a hygienic effect on the lungs does not even make natural sense, since hygienic refers to cleanliness, not to the deep, ongoing harm that pernicious describes.
4. Fine: Smoking has a fine effect on the lungs is too weak and casual a phrase to stand as the precise opposite of a strong word like pernicious.

Testing the sentence swap shows that only healthy turns the meaning fully around, from destructive to beneficial. Innocuous merely cancels the harm without adding a positive quality, so it is the second best choice, not the best one.

Let's summarize:

• Building a sample sentence with the target word helps test each option directly.
• Pernicious describes ongoing, serious harm, so its true opposite must describe active benefit.
• Healthy gives that full reversal, while innocuous gives only a neutral, harm free state.

So the correct opposite of pernicious is option (2), Healthy.