Three-Letter Words: Don
Some of the most perplexing words on the GRE are diminutive. Who doesn’t see PAN : REVIEW and metaphorically scratch his or her head, or wonder what, exactly, a nib or a gin is on its own? Welcome to Three-Letter Words. A few of them might make you want to deploy some four-letter words.
To don is to put on or dress in. You don your clothes every morning. (Well, I don’t know you personally, but unless you live in a nudist colony, I’m pretty sure you don clothes diurnally).
Try this GRE Analogies problem — choose your own answer before clicking “more”:
DON : DOFF ::
A. vie : vex
B. bilk : stymie
C. frighten : terrify
D. excise : insert
E. pan : win
Since doff means “to take off (such as clothes) or to temporarily remove (such as by lifting one’s hat out of respect),” the two words in the stem pair are antonyms. Note that pure antonym pairs don’t happen in Analogies very often, since that’s what Antonyms questions are for, but they do happen.
The answer is D, “excise : insert.” To excise is to cut out, and to insert, of course, is to put in.