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Spelling, word origins, collective nouns and the quirks of English.

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Updated November 2026.

1. What does "Feliz Navidad" mean in English? Answer: Merry Christmas
2. What two words does Scrooge use to dismiss Christmas? Answer: Bah, humbug
3. The reindeer names Donner and Blitzen come from Dutch and German words meaning what? Answer: Thunder and lightning
4. What does the X in "Xmas" stand for? Answer: Christ (X is the Greek letter chi)
5. Santa Claus gets his name from which Dutch figure? Answer: Sinterklaas
6. What is a witch's big cooking pot called? Answer: A cauldron
7. What word describes animals that are active at night, like bats and owls? Answer: Nocturnal
8. The word Halloween is a short form of what older name? Answer: All Hallows' Eve
9. What is the word for a strong fear of spiders? Answer: Arachnophobia
10. What one word does the raven keep repeating in Poe's poem? Answer: Nevermore
11. What do we call a period of ten years? Answer: A decade
12. What do we call a period of one hundred years? Answer: A century
13. January is named after which Roman god with two faces? Answer: Janus
14. Which month is named after Julius Caesar? Answer: July
15. The name December comes from the Latin word for which number? Answer: Ten
16. What does "auld lang syne" mean in plain English? Answer: Old times, or days gone by (word for word, "old long since")
17. What is New Year's Eve called in Scotland? Answer: Hogmanay
18. What is New Year's Eve called in Germany? Answer: Silvester
19. What is stuffing usually called when it is baked in its own dish, especially in the South? Answer: Dressing
20. What is the name of the horn-shaped basket shown overflowing with harvest foods? Answer: A cornucopia, or horn of plenty
21. What is the popular name for a Thanksgiving meal shared with friends? Answer: Friendsgiving
22. What do you call a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey? Answer: A turducken
23. What English nobleman gave his title to food served between two slices of bread? Answer: The Earl of Sandwich
24. What is a group of lions called? Answer: Pride
25. What is the traditional collective noun for a group of crows? Answer: Murder
26. What is a group of geese on the ground called? Answer: Gaggle
27. What is a group of whales called? Answer: Pod (also gam or school)
28. What is the popular collective noun for a group of owls? Answer: Parliament
29. What do you call a word that reads the same forward and backward? Answer: Palindrome
30. What do you call a word that means the opposite of another word? Answer: Antonym
31. What do you call words that sound the same but have different meanings, like "pair" and "pear"? Answer: Homophones
32. What is the plural of "mouse"? Answer: Mice
33. What is the plural of "ox"? Answer: Oxen
34. What letter is silent in the word "lamb"? Answer: B
35. What letter is silent in the word "island"? Answer: S
36. What do you call a word made from the first letters of other words, like NASA? Answer: Acronym
37. What kind of word names a person, place or thing? Answer: Noun
38. What kind of word describes an action? Answer: Verb
39. What language does the word "kindergarten" come from? Answer: German
40. What language does the word "algebra" come from? Answer: Arabic
41. What language does the word "robot" come from? Answer: Czech
42. What Japanese word means "empty orchestra"? Answer: Karaoke
43. What language do the letters RSVP come from? Answer: French
44. What is the fear of heights called? Answer: Acrophobia
45. What is the fear of spiders called? Answer: Arachnophobia
46. What is the only letter that does not appear in the name of any US state? Answer: Q
47. What do you call a sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet? Answer: Pangram
48. What do you call a word made by rearranging the letters of another, like "listen" and "silent"? Answer: Anagram
49. What figure of speech compares two things using "like" or "as"? Answer: Simile
50. What do you call a word that sounds like the noise it names, like "buzz"? Answer: Onomatopoeia
51. What is it called when words in a row start with the same sound, as in "Peter Piper picked"? Answer: Alliteration
52. What Latin phrase is abbreviated with the letters E, T, C? Answer: Et cetera
53. What is the last letter of the Greek alphabet? Answer: Omega
54. How many times does the letter S appear in "Mississippi"? Answer: Four
55. What do you call a book that lists words with similar meanings? Answer: Thesaurus
56. What is the small dot over a lowercase i called? Answer: Tittle
57. What is the name of the symbol that stands for the word "and"? Answer: Ampersand
58. What does "carpe diem" mean? Answer: Seize the day
59. What is the study of where words come from called? Answer: Etymology
60. What word is a blend of "smoke" and "fog"? Answer: Smog
61. In the NATO phonetic alphabet, what word stands for the letter F? Answer: Foxtrot
62. How many items are in a baker's dozen? Answer: 13
63. How many is a "score", as in "four score and seven years ago"? Answer: 20
64. What number does the Roman numeral L stand for? Answer: 50
65. What is the only number whose letters are in alphabetical order when spelled out in English? Answer: Forty
66. Which day of the week is named after the Norse god Thor? Answer: Thursday
67. What do the letters "a.m." stand for? Answer: Ante meridiem
68. What three-line Japanese poem has lines of five, seven and five syllables? Answer: Haiku
69. What five-line comic poem shares its name with a city in Ireland? Answer: Limerick
70. What word describes someone who can use both hands equally well? Answer: Ambidextrous
71. Which letter appears twice in the word "necessary": C or S? Answer: S

Tips for a better game

• Ten questions make a round. After each round, the losing team picks the next topic.
• For a quieter game, have teams write answers and reveal them together.
• Mix in the kids list when children are playing, so every team has questions it can win.

Questions people ask

What are some good word trivia questions?

Five from this list: What is a group of geese on the ground called? (Gaggle) What do you call a word made from the first letters of other words, like NASA? (Acronym) What is the only letter that does not appear in the name of any US state? (Q) What do you call a book that lists words with similar meanings? (Thesaurus) What is the only number whose letters are in alphabetical order when spelled out in English? (Forty)

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