Human body trivia questions and answers
30 human body trivia questions with the answers and a fact for each: anatomy, organs, blood, the senses and a few medical firsts. Read them as a quiz for yourself, use them for a pub quiz round, or press the button and play a Body round live with everyone answering on their own phone.
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The 30 human body quiz questions
- 1Organs
Where in the body would you find the adrenal glands?
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CAbove the kidneys
'Adrenal' means 'near the kidney' — and these glands produce adrenaline, the fight-or-flight hormone.
- 2
In which part of the body would you find the retina?
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BEye
It's the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye; the image lands on it upside down and the brain flips it.
- 3
What is the medical name for having too little iron in the blood?
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BAnaemia
Iron is needed to make haemoglobin, the red pigment that carries oxygen around the body. Women and vegetarians are the most likely to run short.
- 4
How many teeth does an adult human typically have?
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C32
That includes four wisdom teeth, which many people have removed — so 28 is a common real-world answer.
- 5
The femur is the bone found in which part of the body?
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DThigh
It's the longest and strongest bone in the body, at roughly a quarter of your height.
- 6
How many chambers does the human heart have?
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CFour
Two atria on top, two ventricles below. A typical heart beats around 100,000 times a day.
- 7Medical firsts
Florence Nightingale earned the nickname 'the Lady with the Lamp' during which war?
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BCrimean War
She was a pioneering statistician too: her 'rose diagram' charts persuaded Parliament to improve army hygiene.
- 8
Which butterfly-shaped gland in the neck controls the body's metabolism?
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BThyroid
It wraps around the front of the windpipe and its hormones set the pace of nearly every cell in the body.
- 9
What is the medical name for the windpipe?
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BTrachea
The oesophagus is the food pipe that runs behind it. The larynx, or voice box, sits at the top of the trachea.
- 10Anatomy
The Achilles tendon attaches the calf muscles to which bone?
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DHeel bone
It's the thickest, strongest tendon in the body, named after the Greek hero whose heel was his one weak spot.
- 11Blood
The blood type known as the universal donor is…?
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DO negative
AB positive is the mirror image — the universal recipient — as its owners can take red cells from any other group.
- 12
What is the medical name for the kneecap?
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CPatella
Babies are born without a bony kneecap. It starts out as soft cartilage and doesn't fully harden until around the age of three to five.
- 13Anatomy
What is the largest organ of the human body?
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BSkin
Your outer skin renews itself roughly every four weeks, so the skin you're in now isn't the skin you had last month.
- 14
What is the medical term for the big toe?
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AHallux
The thumb is the pollex. The big toe takes about 40% of your weight with each step, which is why stubbing it hurts so much.
- 15
What is the medical name for the belly button?
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ANavel
It's the scar left by the umbilical cord. Around 90% of people have an 'innie'.
- 16
Which is the biggest muscle in your body?
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DGluteus maximus
Your backside is what lets you stand upright, climb stairs and run — chimpanzees, which have much smaller ones, can't run far on two legs.
- 17
Which organ produces bile and filters toxins from your blood?
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BLiver
It's the only internal organ that can regrow — you can lose up to two-thirds of it and it will grow back to full size within months.
- 18Senses
The sense of smell is technically known as…?
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DOlfaction
Much of what we call taste is really smell, which is why dinner seems so dull when you have a cold.
- 19
Which blood cells carry oxygen around the body?
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BRed blood cells
They get their colour from haemoglobin, which grabs oxygen in the lungs. Each one lives for about 120 days before being recycled.
- 20
What connects your muscles to your bones?
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BTendons
Ligaments join bone to bone. The Achilles tendon is the thickest in the body and takes loads of well over a tonne when you sprint.
- 21Senses
Sweet, sour, salty and bitter are four of the five basic tastes. What is the fifth?
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BUmami
Umami was identified in 1908 by Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda, who isolated it from a seaweed broth.
- 22
Where in the body are red blood cells made?
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CBone marrow
Your marrow turns out around two million red blood cells every second. Each one lives for about four months before being recycled.
- 23
Roughly how many litres of blood does an average adult have?
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B5
Your heart pumps the entire supply around your body about once every minute when you're resting.
- 24Organs
Most of the nutrients from your food are absorbed in which part of the digestive system?
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BSmall intestine
The 'small' refers to its width — uncoiled it runs to around six metres, far longer than the large intestine.
- 25
What is the medical name for the collarbone?
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AClavicle
It's one of the most commonly broken bones in the body, and the only long bone that lies horizontally.
- 26
Which coloured part of the eye controls how much light gets in?
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CIris
It's named after the Greek goddess of the rainbow. No two irises are alike, which is why they can be used like fingerprints.
- 27Blood
What gives blood its red colour?
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BHaemoglobin
It's the iron in haemoglobin that does the colouring — and it's why a cut lip tastes faintly of metal.
- 28Medical firsts
The world's first human heart transplant took place in 1967 in which country?
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CSouth Africa
Surgeon Christiaan Barnard's patient, Louis Washkansky, lived for 18 days after the operation in Cape Town.
- 29
How many bones are there in an adult human hand?
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C27
More than half the bones in your body are in your hands and feet: 27 in each hand, 26 in each foot.
- 30Anatomy
How many pairs of ribs does a typical adult have?
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C12
The bottom two pairs are 'floating ribs', anchored to the spine but not to the breastbone.
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Human body quiz FAQ
Can I use these human body trivia questions for my own quiz night?
That is what the page is for. Read them out at a pub quiz, paste them into a work quiz or a family quiz night, and keep the answers hidden until the table has committed. If you would rather not keep score by hand, the button on this page runs a Body round on everyone's phones.
Are the answers on the page?
Yes. Every question has a "Show the answer" toggle with the right option and a one-line fact, so you can quiz yourself first or read straight through with the answers open.
How do I play a Body quiz round live?
Press "Play a Body round". It opens the host page with the Body category already picked. The room shows a join code, everyone else opens huddlequiz.com/join on their phone and types it, and ten questions later there is a winner on the board. No accounts and nothing to install.
Will the live game ask the same questions?
Some of them. The game draws at random from a bigger Body pool, of which this page is a sample, so a live round mixes questions you have read here with ones you have not.
How hard are they?
Mixed. They are written for adults and teenagers at pub-quiz level, so a table of four should get most of them between them and argue about the rest.