Question

Select the sentence containing the homonym of the highlighted word:

The tripos system at Cambridge remains a model of academic rigor.

• A. The tripos involved oral defense and written modules.
• B. He broke his tripos into discrete phases of analysis.
• C. The ceremonial tripos stool toppled during the investiture.
• D. She passed the natural sciences tripos with distinction.

Answer 1

Answer:

C. The ceremonial tripos stool toppled during the investiture.

• A homonym is a word that is spelled and pronounced the same but has a completely different meaning.

• In sentences 1, 2, 4, and 5, "tripos" refers to the famous Cambridge University degree system/exams.

• In sentence 3, tripos is likely a typo for "tripod" (three-legged structure) or used historically to mean a literal three-legged stool/vessel.

• Sentence 3 uses it in its physical, literal sense rather than the academic institution sense.