October 2026 - Word Association Study Guide

Core ideas to know

Learn the relationships, not a string of isolated definitions. These are the facts that let you reason through unfamiliar wording.

• A category relationship links an example to its class: femur is to bone as aorta is to artery.
• A part–whole relationship links a component to the object it forms: page to book, chamber to heart.
• A function relationship links a tool or structure to what it does: thermometer to measure.
• A cause–effect relationship links an event to its typical result, while sequence only tells which comes first.
• A collocation is a conventional pairing such as administer medication; familiarity alone does not make two words synonymous.

A reliable way to answer

Use the same short process every time so the wording of the question does not decide your method for you.

1. Put the first pair into a precise sentence: “A ___ is a kind of ___” or “___ is used to ___.”
2. Keep the direction fixed; part-to-whole is not the same as whole-to-part.
3. Apply the same sentence to each candidate pair.
4. Choose the pair that preserves both the relationship type and its specificity.

Distinctions that earn marks

Terms to know

Semantic relationship

A meaning-based connection between words.

Analogy

A comparison built from two equivalent relationships.

Collocation

A pair or group of words that conventionally occur together.

Key points

• Name the relationship in a complete sentence before comparing choices.
• Preserve direction as well as relationship type.
• Prefer the same level of specificity in both halves of an analogy.