Vocabulary opposite: “Antonym of the given word abet”. Choose the option that expresses the opposite meaning of abet.

Introduction / Context:
This is an antonym question from English vocabulary. The word “abet” is most often used in the legal or moral sense of helping someone to do something wrong. Your task is to select the word with the opposite meaning. Antonym questions test whether you can recall precise shades of meaning and not confuse helpful behaviour in general with specifically encouraging wrongdoing.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Target word: abet. • Options: risk, pacify, aid, prevent. • We assume the standard meaning of abet: to encourage, support, or help someone to commit a misdeed or crime. • The correct antonym must capture the idea of stopping or opposing such behaviour.

Concept / Approach:
Abet means to actively help or encourage, especially in wrongdoing. For example, someone who helps a thief plan a robbery abets the crime. Therefore, the opposite idea would be to stop, hinder, or prevent such wrongdoing. Among the options, prevent is the closest opposite, as it means to stop something from happening. Aid actually supports or helps, which is similar to abet. Risk and pacify express different ideas and are not direct opposites of abet.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Define abet clearly. It means to assist, support, or encourage another person in doing something wrong, especially a crime. Step 2: Identify the nature of antonym required. The opposite of helping wrongdoing is blocking, stopping, or opposing it. Step 3: Examine each option. Risk means exposing someone or something to danger or the possibility of loss, which does not naturally oppose abet. Pacify means to calm or soothe someone who is angry or upset, not to block wrongdoing. Aid means to help or assist, which is quite close in meaning to abet, especially in a neutral or positive sense. Prevent means to stop something from happening or to hinder its occurrence, which is the direct opposite of helping it happen. Step 4: Therefore, prevent is the correct antonym of abet.

Verification / Alternative check:
We can test the options in a typical sentence. Consider “He refused to abet the crime and instead tried to ______ it.” The most natural completion is “prevent it”. Using aid would completely reverse the meaning. Risk and pacify do not fit contextually. This sentence test shows that prevent forms a neat opposite to abet in real usage.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
• Risk: Refers to exposing to danger; it may describe a result of abetting but does not express the opposite act. • Pacify: Means to make peaceful or calm, unrelated to helping or stopping wrongdoing. • Aid: Means to help, which is similar to abet in basic meaning, only without the strong negative sense.

Common Pitfalls:
A frequent confusion is between abet and aid. Both can involve helping. However, abet almost always carries a negative or criminal context, while aid is neutral or positive. For antonym questions, thinking in terms of the full phrase “aid and abet” can help: if abet is to help a wrong act, then its opposite is to prevent that act. Careful reading of definitions avoids mixing up similar words with different connotations.

Final Answer:
The correct antonym of “abet” is Prevent.