Words & Language Trivia Quiz

1. What is a 'palindrome'?

1. A word borrowed from another language
2. A word or phrase that reads the same forwards and backwards
3. A word that sounds like what it means
4. A word with no vowels

2. What language has the most words?

1. Chinese
2. English
3. French
4. Spanish

3. What does 'etymology' mean?

1. The study of dialects
2. The study of insects
3. The study of languages in society
4. The study of the origin and history of words

4. Which language gave English the most loanwords?

1. French
2. German
3. Latin
4. Spanish

5. What is a 'pangram'?

1. A phrase that means the same thing in multiple languages
2. A sentence in which every word starts with the same letter
3. A sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet at least once
4. A word that has opposite meanings

6. What does the word 'serendipity' mean?

1. A beautiful view from a high place
2. A feeling of deep happiness
3. The occurrence of good luck or happy accidents by chance
4. The smell of rain on dry earth

7. The word 'shampoo' comes from which language?

1. Arabic
2. Hindi
3. Persian
4. Portuguese

8. What is an 'oxymoron'?

1. A figure of speech combining two contradictory or opposing terms
2. A very long word with many syllables
3. A word that sounds like what it describes
4. A word with two opposite meanings

9. Which is the most translated book in the world?

1. Don Quixote
2. The Bible
3. The Little Prince
4. The Quran

10. What does the Japanese word 'emoji' literally mean?

1. Digital icon
2. E-mail symbol
3. Emotion picture
4. Picture character

11. What is the longest word in the English language in common use?

1. Antidisestablishmentarianism
2. Floccinaucinihilipilification
3. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
4. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

12. How many letters are in the Hawaiian alphabet?

1. 10
2. 13
3. 18
4. 26

13. What is 'onomatopoeia'?

1. A figure of speech using exaggeration
2. A word borrowed from a proper noun
3. A word with no direct translation in other languages
4. Words that phonetically imitate or resemble the sound they describe

14. What is the term for a word that means the opposite of another word?

1. Antonym
2. Homonym
3. Polyseme
4. Synonym

15. Where does the word 'robot' come from?

1. Czech 'robota' meaning forced labour or drudgery
2. German 'Roboter' meaning machine
3. Greek 'mekhanikos' meaning mechanical
4. Latin 'automata' meaning self-moving

16. What does the word 'quiz' mean in most dictionaries of etymology?

1. A game of questions
2. A quick test
3. A strange or odd person
4. Unknown — its origin is genuinely mysterious

17. What is a 'loanword'?

1. A word adopted from another language with little or no modification
2. A word that was invented and later deleted from the dictionary
3. A word used in informal speech only
4. A word used only temporarily before being replaced

18. The word 'chocolate' ultimately traces back to which indigenous language?

1. Maya/Nahuatl (Aztec)
2. Quechua (Inca)
3. Spanish
4. Taino

19. What is a 'homophone'?

1. A word invented by combining two others
2. A word that is its own antonym
3. A word with multiple meanings
4. Two words that sound the same but have different meanings and spelling

20. Which punctuation mark is known as an 'Oxford comma'?

1. The colon introducing a list
2. The comma before the final 'and' in a list of three or more items
3. The quotation marks around a list
4. The semicolon before a list