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Question

Difficulty: MediumPrefix and Suffix Analysis

The country's government faced international criticism after taking unilateral military action without consulting its allies. In this context, what does the word unilateral most nearly mean?

  1. A
    universal
  2. one-sidedAnswer
  3. C
    joint
  4. D
    unbiased

Answer

one-sided
The word 'unilateral' is formed from the Latin prefix 'uni-' (meaning 'one'), the root 'later' (meaning 'side'), and the derivational suffix '-al' (meaning 'pertaining to'). In the context of state decisions and military actions, a unilateral initiative is carried out by a single nation independently without mutual agreement, making 'one-sided' the exact synonym.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Break down the target word into its morphological constituents (prefix, root, and suffix).
Identify the prefix 'uni-' (meaning 'one'), the Latin root 'later' (meaning 'side'), and the adjectival suffix '-al' (meaning 'pertaining to').
Analyzing the morphological components reveals the core structural definition of the derived word.
2
Combine the morpheme meanings to deduce the overall contextual definition.
'Pertaining to one side' translates to an action undertaken by a single party independently.
Synthesizing affix and root meanings produces the exact synonym required by the sentence context.
3
Evaluate the answer choices to identify the precise synonym and eliminate distractor traps.
'One-sided' directly matches the morphological analysis, while antonyms and misidentified prefixes are eliminated.
Confirms the selection aligns with both affix structure and part-of-speech requirements.

Key Concept

Prefix and Suffix Analysis (uni- + later + -al)
Estimated Time:45s
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Topics

Prefix and Suffix Analysis

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