🔤 Words
Words and language quiz questions and answers
Meanings, origins, the plural nobody agrees on. The round that starts an argument about a dictionary.
24 questions · answers hidden until you tap them · free to use at your own quiz night
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1. What is the opposite of "ancient"?
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Modern · New
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2. What is a baby kangaroo called?
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Joey
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3. Which language has the most native speakers?
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Mandarin · Chinese · Mandarin Chinese
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4. "Merci" means thank you in which language?
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French
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5. Which word means the same as "happy" and starts with J?
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Joyful · Jolly · Joyous
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6. "Hola" means hello in which language?
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Spanish
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7. What do you call a word that means the opposite of another word?
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Antonym
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8. What do you call a shortened form of a word, such as “ad” for “advertisement”?
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Abbreviation
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9. What do you call a word formed by joining parts of two other words, such as “brunch”?
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Blend · Portmanteau
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10. What do you call a word that sounds like the noise it describes, such as “buzz”?
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Onomatopoeia
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11. What is the main part of a word to which prefixes and suffixes are added called?
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Root · Word root
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12. What do you call a word borrowed from another language and used in English?
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Loanword · Loan word
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13. Which word class describes an action, such as “run” or “think”?
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Verb
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14. Which word class names a person, place, thing, or idea?
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Noun
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15. What is a word that imitates a sound, such as “hiss” or “clang”?
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Onomatopoeia
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16. What do you call a phrase whose meaning is different from the literal meanings of its words, such as “spill the beans”?
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Idiom
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17. What is a word that can mean two or more different things called?
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Homonym
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18. What do you call a word added to the beginning of another word to change its meaning?
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Prefix
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19. What is the term for a word that has the same spelling but a different meaning and pronunciation from another word?
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Heteronym
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20. What do you call the study of word origins and history?
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Etymology
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21. What is a word with the same pronunciation as another but a different meaning or spelling called?
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Homophone
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22. What word class includes words such as “in”, “under”, and “between”?
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Preposition
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23. What do you call a word that joins words or clauses, such as “and” or “but”?
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Conjunction
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24. What is a word that can be read as another word when its letters are rearranged called?
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Anagram
Using these at your own quiz
Take eight of them for one round, and read them twice: once through, then again slowly while people write. Every question here has been retired from our online game, so nobody at your table can look the answer up mid round.
If you would rather not be the quizmaster, open the online version. It asks the questions, keeps the score and hides the answers until everyone has typed theirs, so you get to play too.
🧠 Pub Quiz · at the table
2–8 playersThe same questions, asked for you: everyone types in secret, then the answers turn over together.
No account for the bots. One link for your friends.
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Quiz night, without the printing.
Everyone answers in secret. The answers turn over at once.
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