Words and language trivia questions and answers
30 words and language trivia questions with the answers and a fact for each: where words come from, Latin phrases, idioms, grammar, slang, alphabets and the languages of the world. Read them as an English language quiz for yourself, use them for a pub quiz round, or press the button and play a Words round live with everyone answering on their own phone.
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The 30 words and language quiz questions
- 1
The word 'piano' comes from which language?
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AItalian
It's short for pianoforte, meaning 'soft-loud', because unlike the harpsichord it could play both quietly and loudly.
- 2Idioms
'Turning a blind eye' is popularly linked to which British admiral?
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BNelson
At Copenhagen in 1801, Nelson reportedly put his telescope to his blind eye and declared he really did not see the signal.
- 3Grammar
The interrobang is a punctuation mark combining which two symbols?
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C? and !
It was dreamed up in 1962 by advertising executive Martin Speckter, who wanted a mark for surprised questions.
- 4
What does the Latin phrase 'ad hoc' mean?
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CFor this purpose
Literally 'to this'. An ad hoc committee is put together for one particular job and then disbanded.
- 5Idioms
The phrase 'bury the hatchet' originates with the peacemaking customs of which people?
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CNative Americans
Weapons really were buried at peace ceremonies, and English settlers were recording the phrase by the late 1600s.
- 6
What is the plural of 'mouse'?
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DMice
'Meese' isn't a word, though 'geese' is. English plurals are a minefield, which is why the plural of moose is just moose.
- 7
In an office email, 'FYI' is short for what?
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BFor your information
It dates back to office memos of the 1940s, long before email and text messaging turned it into everyday shorthand.
- 8
If something 'costs an arm and a leg', what is it?
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BVery expensive
The phrase only dates from the 1940s. A similar older expression was 'I'd give my right arm', meaning you'd pay almost anything.
- 9Latin
The legal phrase 'habeas corpus' literally means…?
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DYou shall have the body
It orders a prisoner be brought before a court; England's Habeas Corpus Act dates from 1679.
- 10
Which punctuation mark shows possession, as in 'the dog's bone'?
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BApostrophe
It also stands in for missing letters, as in 'don't'. Its misuse on shop signs is nicknamed the greengrocer's apostrophe.
- 11
The word 'alphabet' comes from the first two letters of which alphabet?
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BGreek
Alpha and beta. The Greeks adapted their letters from the Phoenicians around 800 BC, adding vowels for the first time.
- 12Latin
What does the Latin motto 'tempus fugit' mean?
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ATime flies
It comes from Virgil's Georgics, where the full line laments that time flees irretrievably.
- 13
An animal active during the day, rather than at night, is described as…?
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BDiurnal
Crepuscular animals, such as deer and rabbits, are busiest at dawn and dusk.
- 14Language
What is the most common surname in the world?
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BWang
Roughly 100 million people share it. Smith doesn't crack the global top ten.
- 15
A 'pseudonym' is what kind of name?
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BA false name
From the Greek for 'false name'. George Orwell, Mark Twain and Lewis Carroll were all pseudonyms.
- 16
What is the term for a word that reads the same backwards as forwards?
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APalindrome
'Racecar' and 'level' are examples; the Finnish word for a soapstone seller, saippuakivikauppias, is a 19-letter one.
- 17Latin
What does the Latin phrase 'carpe diem' mean?
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DSeize the day
It comes from an ode by Horace, and 'carpe' more literally means 'pluck' — as in picking fruit while it's ripe.
- 18
What is a group of geese called?
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BA gaggle
That's on the ground. Once they're flying in a V, the same birds are usually called a skein or a wedge.
- 19
If you 'bite the bullet', what do you do?
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DFace something unpleasant bravely
It's often said to come from battlefield surgery, when a wounded soldier was given a bullet to bite on instead of anaesthetic.
- 20Alphabets
Which language is written in the Devanagari script?
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AHindi
Devanagari letters hang from a horizontal line along the top, which is why Hindi text looks as if it's on a washing line.
- 21
What does the abbreviation 'etc.', short for the Latin 'et cetera', mean?
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BAnd so on
'e.g.' is 'exempli gratia' (for example), 'i.e.' is 'id est' (that is) and 'N.B.' is 'nota bene' (note well).
- 22Languages
Which language gave English the words 'pyjamas', 'shampoo' and 'bungalow'?
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AHindi
'Shampoo' originally meant a massage, from the Hindi 'champo', meaning to press or knead.
- 23
A group of crows is called a…?
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CMurder
Parliament is owls; conspiracy is ravens.
- 24
What is the only common English word ending in “mt”?
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ADreamt
Dreamt — and its cousin undreamt. The others end in “pt”.
- 25Etymology
The word 'muscle' comes from the Latin for 'little…'?
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CMouse
Romans thought a flexing bicep looked like a mouse moving under the skin — the Greek 'mys' meant both mouse and muscle too.
- 26Slang
In Australian slang, what is an 'arvo'?
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DAn afternoon
Australians love that '-o' ending: a servo is a petrol station, a bottle-o an off-licence and a smoko a tea break.
- 27
If a task is 'a piece of cake', what is it?
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AVery easy
The phrase caught on in the 1930s. Royal Air Force pilots in the Second World War used it for an easy mission.
- 28
What does the German word 'kindergarten' literally mean?
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AChildren's garden
Friedrich Fröbel opened the first one in 1837, imagining children as plants to be nurtured. English borrowed the word unchanged.
- 29
The Latin abbreviation 'e.g.' means what?
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BFor example
It's short for exempli gratia. 'i.e.' (id est) means 'that is', and the two get muddled up constantly.
- 30
In which language is 'merci' the word for 'thank you'?
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CFrench
It comes from the Latin merces, meaning 'reward' or 'wages' — the same root as the English word 'mercy'.
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Words and language quiz FAQ
Can I use these words and language 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 Words 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 Words quiz round live?
Press "Play a Words round". It opens the host page with the Words 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 Words 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.