Analysts remain ____ of the company's rosy revenue projections after last year's miss. The options are wary, weary, cautious, and aware. A learner scanning for "careful" can talk themselves into two of these, and weary looks close enough to wary to tempt a tired eye. The intended answer is wary — a stance of distrust toward something that might be misleading, followed by of, is exactly what wary of means. This guide sorts the caution adjectives so the choice rests on the preposition that follows and the exact shade of feeling, not on which word looks familiar.
Three adjectives, one caution, different prepositions
All three describe holding back, but they differ in nuance and, crucially for Part 5, in the preposition they select.
wary of → distrustful and watchful, alert to a possible risk or trick ("wary of unsolicited offers")
leery of → suspicious and reluctant, a more colloquial cousin of wary ("leery of signing without a lawyer")
cautious about / with → prudent and careful, avoiding rashness, with no necessary implication of distrust ("cautious about spending," "cautious with data")
The preposition is often the fastest tell: wary and leery take of; cautious takes about (a topic) or with (a thing handled carefully).
The one-second test: which preposition, and distrust or prudence?
You do not need to feel the connotation first. Read the preposition in or near the blank:
- Blank followed by of + a thing you might not trust → wary (neutral-formal) or leery (informal).
- Blank followed by about a topic, or with a thing handled carefully → cautious.
- The feeling is active distrust or suspicion → wary / leery; the feeling is prudent care → cautious.
The bank is ____ about extending credit to new ventures. The preposition about rules out wary and leery, so the answer is cautious. Shoppers are increasingly ____ of subscriptions that renew automatically. The of plus a sense of distrust points to wary. The preposition narrows the field before the nuance decides between the survivors. For the wider habit of matching an adjective to its fixed preposition, see verb-preposition collocations, whose logic extends to adjectives.
The preposition split does half the work
Because wary and leery lock to of while cautious prefers about or with, many items are decidable on the collocation alone:
Regulators are **wary of** the merger.✓ /~~wary about the merger~~reads as off in careful English.Management is **cautious about** the expansion.✓ /~~cautious of the expansion~~shifts the meaning toward suspicion, which may not be intended.
If the blank is followed by of, cautious is the weaker fit and the answer is almost always wary (or leery in an informal register). This is the same fixed-preposition reflex that governs compliance verbs in dependent-preposition collocations: comply, adhere, conform.
The confusable trap: wary is not weary
The highest-frequency distractor here is weary, which looks and half-sounds like wary but means something entirely different — tired, worn out:
Travelers grew **weary** after the twelve-hour delay.✓ — exhausted.Travelers grew **wary** of the reroute offers.✓ — distrustful.
Weary describes fatigue and takes of only in the sense "tired of" (weary of the noise). If the sentence is about suspicion of a risk, it is wary; if it is about exhaustion, it is weary. The two are never interchangeable, and Part 5 offers weary precisely to catch a reader skimming by shape.
Why "cautious" fits the prudence items
Cautious carries no built-in distrust — it simply means careful, measured, unwilling to act rashly. TOEIC's business context uses it for prudent decision-making:
The board took a **cautious** approach to the acquisition.✓ — measured, not suspicious.Be **cautious with** confidential files.✓ — handle carefully.
When the sentence praises prudence rather than flagging a threat, cautious is the neutral, register-correct choice, and wary would wrongly inject suspicion.
The distractor logic in one table
Signal in the sentence | Correct adjective | Why the others fail
Blank + of + a thing you might not trust | wary of | cautious prefers about/with; weary means tired
Same idea, informal register | leery of | wary is the more formal near-twin
Blank + about a topic, or with a thing handled | cautious | wary/leery collocate with of, not about
Sentence is about tiredness | weary | wary means distrustful, not exhausted
The top and bottom rows are the two traps that decide most items: the of versus about split, and the wary versus weary look-alike.
Common wrong answers and why they lose
- weary where the meaning is suspicion →
wearymeans tired; the distrust word iswary. - cautious of in place of
wary of→cautiouscollocates withabout/with;ofafter a caution word points towaryorleery. - wary about a topic →
warytakesof; a topic afteraboutwantscautious. - aware substituted for wary →
aware ofmeans merely conscious of, not distrustful; it drops the guarded stance the sentence needs.
Two-step drill
- Read the preposition. Of + a possibly-untrustworthy thing → wary/leery. About a topic or with a handled thing → cautious. This alone settles most items.
- If two survive, pick the shade: active distrust → wary (formal) or leery (informal); prudent care with no suspicion → cautious. And never let weary (tired) slip in for wary.
Consumers have become ____ of online reviews that all sound identical. Step 1: the preposition is of and the object is something suspect, ruling out cautious about. Step 2: the feeling is distrust, and the register is neutral, so the answer is wary — not weary, which would wrongly say consumers are tired of the reviews. The item resolves on the preposition and the distrust nuance, not on surface resemblance. For deciding whether an item is testing meaning or form in the first place, see word choice versus word form.