What is the term for a fictitious name used by an author to conceal his or her identity (pen name/ nom de plume)?
pseudonym
What did Albert Einstein win the Nobel Prize for in 1921?
the law of the photoelectric effect
What is the study of the movement of air and other gases called?
aerodynamics
What does “mets,” as in New York Mets, stand for?
Metropolitan
The Dodgers weren’t always in Los Angeles. What US city did they get their name from?
Brooklyn, New York
The vulgar term asshole is first recorded in the …?
in the 1400s
What is the capital city of the Norse gods?
Asgard
Why did Steve Jobs named the company Apple?
Because at that time he was on “one of [his] fruitarian diets.”
What is any foodstuff that has been genetically modified called?
Frankenstein food
What 2 of the highest officials of Nazi Germany, besides Adolf Hitler, committed suicide before they could be brought to trial?
Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler
‘To sit tight’ means…?
To wait patiently and take no action until you hear otherwise
Popular in Victorian times, the cheaply made ‘penny dreadful’, also called …, featured serialized tales of adventure, crime, and horror.
dime novels
What was Scrabble’s original name in the 1930s?
Lexiko
What is a misstep?
an error
A popular All Hallows' Eve ritual was mirror-gazing, as people hoped to catch a vision of …?
their future
What type of novel is a story told exclusively through fictionalized letters, emails, newspaper articles, and other primary sources?
An epistolary novel
The smile in Amazon’s logo refers to the fact that …?
They sell everything from A to Z.
In Romance languages, the name of Wednesday is derived from the Roman god …?
Mercury
Tuesday is named for a one-handed war god named …?
Tiw
Who was the Roman goddess that personified the moon?
Luna
Who wrote the 1818-novel Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus?
Mary Shelley
What had been the name of Augustus before he became emperor in 27 BC?
Octavian
What does the “A” in the baseball team Oakland A’s stand for?
Athletics
What is the largest of the great apes?
mountain gorilla
A hummingbird can flap its wings about … times per second.
80
What hormone does the pancreas produce?
insulin
To go from being poor to having a lot of money means ‘to go from …’?
rags to riches
The state of Mississippi’s nickname is…?
Magnolia State
What is the eighth sign of the Zodiac?
Scorpio
What popular board game was invented during the Great Depression by architect Alfred Mosher Butts who couldn’t find work?
Scrabble
In 1974, one state had four rhyming team names, what was it? (Jets, Mets, Nets, and Sets)
New York
What animal has the highest blood pressure?
giraffe
What term was applied by Nazis to the genocide of European Jews during World War II?
Final Solution
Who is considered the founder of the modern science of genetics?
Gregor Mendel
Who ascended to the throne around 800 and set about reforming education?
Charlemagne
What’s the name of the gaseous envelope that surrounds Earth?
atmosphere
Who’s the chief of Tesla and SpaceX?
Elon Musk
What inspired the German National Socialism?
Italian fascism
The name Google is a play on the mathematical term googol, which is a one followed by…?
100 zeros
What does ‘a pretty penny’ mean?
A considerable sum of money
What pseudonym/pen name did Mary Ann Evans use?
George Eliot
What planet has the highest density?
Earth
What Norse god’s name does Thursday bear?
Thor
Freyja, goddess of fertility, gold, and death, rides a chariot driven by two …?
cats
What do vaccines stimulate?
The antibody production in the body
What Scandinavian god is represented as riding a chariot drawn by goats and wielding the hammer Mjolnir?
Thor
When was Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgement” unveiled to the public in the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City?
On October 31, 1541
What style of art and literature developed in the 20th century, stressed the subconscious or nonrational significance of imagery?
Surrealism
How is the Friday before Thanksgiving called?
Black Friday
What’s the capital of Norway?
Oslo
Also called “The Land of the Midnight Sun,” Alaska is best known as …?
The Last Frontier
One of New York’s basketball teams, the Knicks, is shortened from the word “knickerbocker,” which means what?
A New Yorker
Which organ can account for up to 30% of a shark's total body mass?
liver
What is another word used to refer to the white cells in a crossword puzzle?
lights
Which is the flattest of all the planets?
Saturn
What nomadic people originating between India and Iran migrated to Europe in the 14th or 15th century?
Gypsies
How is the revision of the Julian calendar introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII called?
Gregorian calendar
When was the web portal Yahoo created?
In January 1994
Wednesday was named for the Germanic god Woden/Wotan also known as …?
Odin
What is the Germanic correspondent to the Scandinavian chief god Odin?
Wotan
How many pencils could you produce from the carbon in the average human body?
9,000
The F word was first recorded in…?
the 1500s
Starting around 1965, Wednesday began being referred to as …?
Hump day
What do you call a device for making arithmetic calculations, consisting of a frame set with rods on which balls or beads are moved?
abacus
Before ending up in Los Angeles, the Lakers were named after what geographic region?
Minnesota – Land of 10,000 Lakes
What is the thinnest layer of the Earth?
The crust - less than 1% of our planet's volume
What does Thor mean in Old Norse?
thunder
What people were the ones who decided on a seven-day week, and they named five of the days for planets, and one each for the sun and for the moon?
Babylonians
What term is used for an organization claiming to be an institution of higher learning but existing for profit only and granting degrees without demanding proper qualifications of the recipients?
Diploma Mill
The increase in the earth's average atmospheric temperature that causes corresponding changes in climate and that may result from the greenhouse effect is named…?
global warming
Which US state was the first state to give its women citizens the right to vote?
Wyoming
What was Google’s original name?
BackRub
When did Arthur Wynne, credited with inventing the crossword, publish his first puzzle?
1913
Sol (Sun) and Mani (Moon) form a sister and brother pair in what mythology?
Norse
What’s the term used for a word, phrase, or sentence formed from another by rearranging its letters?
anagram
What US state is also called “The Land of Lincoln” in honour of Honest Abe’s political career there?
Illinois
How many of the Nazi leaders were tried In Nuremberg?
22
What English writer coined ‘Yahoo’ in 1926 for Gulliver’s Travels?
Jonathan Swift
What is Johannes Kepler best known for?
the laws of planetary motion
What does ‘to pinpoint’ mean?
to locate exactly
What do we call the liquid part of blood and lymph?
plasma
Someone who comes from a wealthy and successful family is born with…?
A silver spoon in one’s mouth
Medieval narratives hailing from Iceland or Norway are called…?
sagas
How is the Monday after Thanksgiving is called?
Cyber Monday
In legal proceedings, the pseudonyms John Doe, Jane Doe, Richard Roe, and Jane Roe are used in when …?
A person’s name is being kept anonymous
What Roman god was the messenger to the gods, along with being the patron of science, the arts, travellers, and athletes?
Mercury
In Romanian Friday is vinery, the day of …?
Venus
The largest colony of ants in the world stretches … km.
6,000 km from northern Italy, through the south of France to the Atlantic coast of Spain
What term is used to define special protein molecules that the immune system produces in response to antigens?
antibodies
What’s the meaning of mead?
honey wine
How many new species are discovered each year?
18,000
In what domain are the phrases ‘in the black’ and ‘in the red’ used?
business
What is the most abundant element in the Martian atmosphere?
The Martian atmosphere consists of approximately 96% carbon dioxide.
Finish the rhyme: April showers bring…?
May flowers
What type of fiction relates to the emotional awakening of a young character?
Bildungsroman
‘Hit the books’ means to…?
study/learn
The term for a false name used to conceal one's identity or an assumed name is…?
alias
What term defines a familiar, pet, or derisory name given to a person, animal, or place?
nickname
How many air signs are there in the zodiac?
3
Where can you find the protective ozone layer that surrounds Earth and absorbs ultraviolet rays from the sun and prevents them from reaching the surface?
stratosphere
Your experience on this site will be improved by allowing cookies.