Word Connections and Analogies

In this lesson, you will learn how to solve word connection and analogy questions. These are a key part of CEM 11+ Verbal Reasoning. They test your ability to spot relationships between words and apply those relationships to new pairs.

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What Is a Word Analogy?

A word analogy asks you to identify a relationship between two words, then find another pair with the same relationship.

The pattern is:

A is to B as C is to ?

For example:

Dog is to puppy as cat is to kitten

The relationship is adult animal to young animal.

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Types of Word Relationships

There are many types of relationships you might see. Here are the most important ones for CEM exams:

1. Synonyms

Big is to large as small is to tiny

2. Antonyms

Hot is to cold as up is to down

3. Part to Whole

Petal is to flower as brick is to wall

A petal is part of a flower. A brick is part of a wall.

4. Whole to Part

Tree is to branch as body is to arm