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About This Quiz
American English: It's one of the most complex languages on the planet, and with good historical reason! It started out as the native language of the Anglos and Saxons, absorbed a huge helping of French with the 1066 Norman Invasion, and then traveled the world as part of the global English empire, taking souvenirs from languages like Hindi. Then, in America, the colonial English speakers picked up words from the Native Americans (like "succotash," once the word "m'sickqatash") and some from the languages of imported African slaves. Finally, American English began to breed colorful regional terms all its own.Â
So, in the 21st century, if you want to be an expert on the English language, you've really got your work cut out for you! You have to understand the meaning of prefixes like hyper-, theo- and meta-, as well as the impact of suffixes like -gamy and -pathy. Theogamy: would that be marriage to a god? Not really a useful term in everyday life, but you might find such a portmanteau term in a fantasy novel.Â
Is your vocabulary better than the average? We're ready to put it to the test with a quiz that -- be warned -- starts out moderately difficult and proceeds to wickedly hard! (But we've already given you a hint in the body of this quiz).Â
Ready, wordsmiths? Get to it!
Tipsy
About to fall over.
A bit drunk.
Tipsy is a word describing a low level of inebriation.
The name of the cat from the book "In My Little Cottage."
A kind of battery.
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Fictitious
True or verifiable.
Not real or imaginary.
Fictitious describes the nature of a thing as being imaginary, made up, or otherwise false.
Drunk or disorderly.
On fire.
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Ornery
Old or worn out.
Drunk.
Combative.
Ornery is an adjective describing a combative nature, an urge to argue and confront.
Smelly and unpleasant.
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Dastardly
Heroic.
False.
Intelligent.
Wicked.
Dastardly is a colorful word used to describe the evil of a particularly colorful person.
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Proscenium
The plane formed at the front of a stage by the arch over the top of the stage, and the edge of the stage floor.
This word describes a metaphysical concept going back to Ancient Greece, when the first theaters were built.
The force of a chemical explosion.
The plane formed by the axis of launch from a high perch, ending in descent.
A part of the body.
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Aperture
A type of deer.
A funnel used in distilleries.
An opening.
An aperture is simply a hole. In photography, an aperture is the part of the camera that opens and closes to moderate the amount of light that gets through to the film or the camera sensor, allowing cameras to compensate for the kind of film. Adjusting the aperture also changes the depth of field.
A discontinued model of Honda.
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Folio
A case designed to carry documents.
A piece of paper numbered on the front side.
A folio is indeed a single piece of paper or parchment, numbered on the front, and existing on its own or as part of a larger document.
A kind of book.
A variety of rodent.
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Nib
The tip of a fountain pen.
A nib is a usually replaceable part of a fountain pen, designed to allow ink to flow from the pen's reservoir to the paper in a controlled way.
The top of a small mountain.
The tip of a finger.
The end of a long line.
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Nomenclature
The body or system of names in a particular field.
This word is usually used to describe a set of words specific to a group, for example, the nomenclature of magicians includes terms like "gaffed" "work" "punch" and "pass."
A tool used to clean turbochargers.
A collection of knickknacks; a menagerie.
A German political party.
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Louche
The opposite of tight.
Disreputable or sordid in a rakish or appealing way.
This word is used to describe things that while not reputable, are still attractive, like a louche lover, the louche word of theater, the louche bar down the street, etc.
Uneasy and restless.
Upside-down.
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Lexicon
The planet where the Transformers come from.
The vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge.
Lexicon is similar to nomenclature, except that a lexicon may be used to describe more than just nouns.
A collection of tools.
A word describing a group of Vampires.
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Protean
Mutable.
Referring to the ancient god of sea change, Proteus, this word means as likely to change as the sea, which changes a lot.
Unable to change.
Quick.
Cold.
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Visceral
Tight, binding.
Relating to deep inward feelings.
Coming from its origins describing the innards of the body, visceral describes the feelings people have that seem to come from their guts.
Upsetting, violent.
Relating to fear and trepidation.
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Octodecillion
A type of bug.
An untrustworthy classmate.
A term used in Gaul to describe the master of an ancient Roman estate.
A cardinal number represented in the U.S. by 1 followed by 57 zeros, and in Great Britain by 1 followed by 108 zeros.
While the US and the UK can't seem to agree on the nomenclature, this is a big number any way you cut it.
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Abstruse
Obfuscated from understanding.
Abstruse does indeed mean something that is difficult to discern, but wait! There are harder words ahead!
Neither here nor there.
A kind of bird.
A pull of the rectus abdominus muscle, sometimes inflicted by too many Russian Twists.
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Nikhedonia
The feeling of elation coming from the disappearance of pain.
The feeling of elation coming from going to the bathroom after a long trip.
The feeling of elation coming from success.
This odd word means the feeling one has when one is dealt a winning hand in poker, and knows it.
A show on Nickelodeon late at night.
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Acedia
Spiritual ennui.
One of the earliest named psychological disorders, it stemmed from members of the priesthood getting fed up with religion, or losing their faith.
A mental disorder similar to OCD.
A term identical to IBS.
An emotional condition marked by manic tendencies.
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Tmesis
The act of splitting a word in half, assigning each half a different meaning that combine to become the whole word.
The act of splitting a word in half to use each half in different words.
The act of splitting a word in half to insert an adjective in the middle.
This word with a Greek root may not be widely known, but its use is widespread in the English speaking world.
The act of splitting a block of wood.
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Ultracrepidarian
One who lives long past their life expectancy.
One who lives longer than one thousand years.
One who speaks on subjects they know nothing about.
Like the parent asked "why" all the time, an ultracrepidarian is someone who speaks on subjects they know nothing about.
One who speaks on subjects they know everything about.
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Oenophile
A drunk.
A heavy drinker.
A lover of beer.
A lover of wine.
Oenophile means lover of wine, distinct from being an alcoholic, or a lover of alcohol in general.
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Chthonic
Subterranean, and of the underworld, either literally or figuratively.
A word that only came into existence in the 1800s, this word could be used to describe death gods ("Chthonic deities").
Hellish.
Hellish.
A medical procedure whereby a doctor inserts a tube into the large intestine, injecting water in order to flush out its contents.
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Bindlestiff
A hobo.
Created sometime in the early 20th century, this word describing hobos, is a combination of the words bundle (how they carry their belongings) and stiff (a word used to describe a useless person).
A carpetbagger.
A promiscuous man.
An educated womean.
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Ylem
The primordial stuff of life.
The primordial matter from before the big bang.
Ylem refers to the neutrons that formed the primordial matter of the universe before the big bang.
The primordial creativity of children.
The primordial god of the Maya.
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Portmanteau
The media nickname given to Hollywood odd couple Natalie Portman and oceanographer Jean-Michel Cousteau.
The idea of a name like the media nicknames given to couples like A-Lo (Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez).
A portmanteau is a combination word made up of two or more other words, like "affluenza", "Bollywood", or "bromance."
A settlement on an Antarctic island used to study penguin migration.
The titular creature of the classic 1956 black and white horror film "The Portmanteau."
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Persiflage
Meaningless, lighthearted conversation. Small talk.
Persiflage does indeed mean the sort of meaningless nonsense conversations we have in elevators and with strangers at cocktail parties. It is light, meaningless, and generally just takes up space in what would otherwise be awkward silences.
Important, deep conversation. Big talk.
Conversation without the use of words. Silent-talk.
A phalange that grows on the chins of blowfish.
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Synecdoche
The expression of a whole, by describing only a part.
A synecdoche is a figure of speech whereby a part of the whole is used to describe the whole, such as lending one's ears, taking one's hand, etc.
A common error produced by cassette tape players.
A mental illness causing sufferers to lose their sense of time.
A spiritual emptiness first coined by William Shakespeare.
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Wabbit
A Scottish expression meaning exhausted.
Indeed, this colorful Scottish colloquialism means the state of exhaustion.
An American expression for any small critter, taken from Looney Tunes.
A programming language of the 1980s.
A new app for people who want to meet cute little bunnies.
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Ouroboros
An ancient symbol of infinity.
The symbol of a snake eating its tail is an ancient symbol of wholeness or infinity.
An ancient symbol of fertility.
An ancient symbol of death.
An ancient symbol of marriage.
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Chiasmus
The rhetorical device of repeating words in the opposite direction to emphasize or expound on their meaning.
Chiasmus means to repeat in reverse the order of words to emphasize their meaning. To repeat in reverse the order of words to emphasize their meaning means chiasmus.
The act of cheating on one's spouse.
The event of a politician dying in office.
The color used by GM on cars in the early 1960s.
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Zeugma
A use of one word in two senses at once.
Zeugma means to use a word in two senses at the same time: "His doctors bled dry both him and his bank account."
A use of one word to mean the opposite of what it means.
A use of one word to mean something that has nothing to do with the word's normal meaning.
A use of a word to mean exactly what it means.
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Aa
Rough cindery lava.
A popular Scrabble word, Aa does in fact refer to a kind of lava.
Alcoholics Anonymous.
A yell.
A sigh.
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Bo
A kind of bush.
A kind of fig tree.
Another popular Scrabble word, Bo is a kind of fig tree.
A kind of dog.
A proper name.
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El
An elevated railway.
An "El" is an elevated train, as found in parts of Chicago and New York.
A racial epithet.
The name of God.
An upside down souffle.
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Gi
A small child.
A type of dog.
A Kendo uniform.
A Judo uniform.
A "gi" is a uniform worn in the martial art Judo, and is a popular two letter Scrabble word.
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Go
A game played with sticks.
A group of people from central Africa.
A formal piece of footwear.
To move or travel.
One of the most popular two letter Scrabble words, to "go" does indeed mean to move or travel.
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You Got:
/35
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