The Correct Answer and Explanation is:
The correct answer is win.
This question presents a verbal analogy, which requires identifying the relationship between the first pair of words and then finding a word that creates the same relationship with the third word. The structure is “freeze is to thaw as lose is to [blank]”.
First, let’s analyze the relationship between “freeze” and “thaw”. To freeze is to turn from a liquid to a solid state due to cold. To thaw is the reverse process, where something frozen turns back into a liquid or becomes soft as it warms up. Therefore, “freeze” and “thaw” are antonyms; they describe opposite actions or processes. One undoes the other.
To complete the analogy, we must find a word that has a similar opposite relationship with the word “lose”. The word “lose” typically means to fail to win a game, contest, or struggle, or to be deprived of something. We are looking for its direct antonym.
Let’s examine the options provided:
- forfeit: To forfeit means to give up or surrender something, often as a penalty for a mistake or failure to appear. Forfeiting is a specific way of losing a contest, not its opposite. It is more of a synonym or a subcategory of losing.
- participate: To participate means to take part in an activity or event. Participation is a prerequisite for either winning or losing. One must participate in a game to have the chance to win or lose, but participating itself is not the opposite of losing.
- win: To win means to be victorious or successful in a competition or conflict. This is the direct and most common antonym for “lose”. Just as thawing is the opposite outcome of freezing, winning is the opposite outcome of losing.
Therefore, the word that correctly completes the analogy by maintaining the relationship of opposites is “win”. The completed analogy is: freeze is to thaw as lose is to win.
