Introduction / Context:
This spelling question tests your knowledge of standard English spellings, particularly of words that often appear in medical or psychological contexts. Many competitive exams include such questions to check whether a candidate can recognise the correct form of a word among several distractors that look similar but are wrong. Here, only one of the four given options matches the standard dictionary spelling of a real English word.
Given Data / Assumptions:
- Options: dementia, quaterain, necrosys, frenetec.
- Exactly one option is spelt correctly and is a standard English word.
- The test focuses on recognition rather than meaning, but understanding the meanings can help too.
Concept / Approach:
The strategy is to identify which of the options corresponds to a known English word with correct spelling. Dementia is a well known medical term referring to a decline in cognitive function, especially in older people. The other options appear to be misspelt or distorted versions of different English words. By recalling familiar words and patterns, we can eliminate incorrect forms and choose the one that is widely used in medical and general literature.
Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Examine option a: dementia. This is a common medical term that describes a group of symptoms such as memory loss and impaired thinking.
Step 2: Check the spelling of dementia. It is correctly spelt d e m e n t i a and appears exactly like that in dictionaries and textbooks.
Step 3: Examine option b: quaterain. There is a word quatrain, meaning a stanza of four lines in poetry, but the spelling quaterain is incorrect and does not match any standard word.
Step 4: Examine option c: necrosys. The related medical term is necrosis, which refers to the death of body tissue. Necrosys is not a standard spelling.
Step 5: Examine option d: frenetec. This seems to be an incorrect attempt at frenetic, which means fast and energetic, but again the spelling here is wrong.
Step 6: Since only dementia matches a recognised English word with correct spelling, it must be the correct answer.
Verification / Alternative check:
If you check medical discussions or newspaper articles, you will often see references to dementia, especially in the context of ageing populations. Dictionary entries confirm that dementia is correctly spelt. On the other hand, searching for the other spellings in reliable dictionaries yields no valid entries. Recognising this difference is enough to confirm that dementia is the correctly spelt word.
Why Other Options Are Wrong:
- quaterain: Incorrect spelling; the proper word is quatrain.
- necrosys: Incorrect spelling; the related term is necrosis, not necrosys.
- frenetec: Incorrect spelling; the real adjective is frenetic.
Common Pitfalls:
A frequent mistake is to be misled by complicated looking options that appear technical. However, difficult spellings are not automatically correct. Candidates sometimes feel unsure about common words like dementia and instead choose unfamiliar options, thinking that exams prefer rare vocabulary. In reality, exam setters often mix well known words with fabricated misspellings, so trusting your reading experience is often the best approach.
Final Answer:
The correctly spelt English word is
dementia.
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