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GATE 2026 EC GA Q.6: solution and answer

GATE 2026 · ECGA Q.6 · 2 marks · MCQ

Each one of the following clues contains a keyword that is partially filled.

Clue 1: Synonym of recognize (8 letters): _ D _ NT_ FY

Clue 2: A story long enough to fill a book (5 letters): _ _ _ EL

Clue 3: Two of something (6 letters): _ _ _ PLE

Clue 4: A fraction of something, split equally into two parts (4 letters): _ _ _ F

The first letter of each of the keywords can be rearranged to form a four-letter word.

Which one of the options below is a possible choice for the four-letter word?

  1. (A)

    CHIN

  2. (B)

    COIN

  3. (C)

    ITCH

  4. (D)

    NOSE

See the question in the paper
GATE 2026 EC GA question 6Tap to open full size

Answer and solution

ANSWER

The keywords are IDENTIFY, NOVEL, COUPLE and HALF. Their first letters I, N, C, H rearrange to CHIN, so the answer is option (A).

Official answer: ASource: Official answer key, GATE 2026 EC (IIT Guwahati)

  1. Clue 1: an 8-letter synonym of recognize that fits _ D _ NT_ FY (slots: _ D _ N T _ F Y) is IDENTIFY (I-D-E-N-T-I-F-Y). Every given letter sits in its printed slot. First letter: I.

  2. Clue 2: a story long enough to fill a book, 5 letters, fitting _ _ _ EL, is NOVEL. First letter: N.

  3. Clue 3: two of something, 6 letters, fitting _ _ _ PLE, is COUPLE. (TRIPLE fits the letter pattern but means three, so it does not match the clue.) First letter: C.

  4. Clue 4: one of two equal parts of something, 4 letters, fitting _ _ _ F, is HALF. First letter: H.

  5. The four first letters are I, N, C, H. Rearranged, they spell CHIN (and also INCH, which is not an option).

  6. Check each option against the letter set {C, H, I, N}. CHIN uses exactly C, H, I and N, so it works. COIN needs an O, ITCH needs a T, and NOSE needs O, S and E. None of those letters is in the set, so B, C and D are ruled out.

  7. The four-letter word is CHIN, which is option (A).

KEY IDEA

Solve each clue from both its meaning and its letter pattern (length plus the fixed letters), take the first letter of each keyword, then keep only the option that uses exactly those four letters, each once.

WATCH OUT FOR

Stopping after two or three clues and guessing. Every wrong option except NOSE shares three letters with the answer (COIN has C, I, N; ITCH has I, C, H), so you need all four keywords to decide. Another slip is taking TRIPLE for Clue 3 because it fits _ _ _ PLE. The clue says two, so the word is COUPLE.

From the GATE 2026 EC paper. Every question of this paper · Download the full paper · All 32 Grammar & vocabulary questions, with notes

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