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General knowledge · 12 questions
Wordplay and anagrams quiz
Get your thinking cap on. Words are not always what they seem.
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Question 1 of 12
'Brunch' is a blend of breakfast and lunch. What is this kind of word called?
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- 1. 'Brunch' is a blend of breakfast and lunch. What is this kind of word called?
- A. Palindrome
- B. Portmanteau (answer)
- C. Acronym
- D. Homophone
Lewis Carroll popularised the term. - 2. Which of these is a palindrome?
- A. Rotator (answer)
- B. Rotate
- C. Tractor
- D. Rotor blade
It reads the same backwards. - 3. 'Listen' is an anagram of which word?
- A. Tinsel (answer)
- B. Lintel
- C. Lentils
- D. Stolen
Also 'silent' and 'enlist'. - 4. Which of these is an oxymoron?
- A. Happy ending
- B. Deafening silence (answer)
- C. Busy day
- D. Bright light
It puts contradictory words together. - 5. What does 'scuba' originally stand for in part?
- A. Self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (answer)
- B. Sea current under boat area
- C. Submarine cable unit
- D. Swim club ballast
It began as an acronym. - 6. Which word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?
- A. Long
- B. Short (answer)
- C. Small
- D. Brief
Short plus 'er' becomes shorter. - 7. 'Dormitory' is an anagram of which phrase?
- A. Dirty room (answer)
- B. Dim story
- C. Tidy room
- D. Door mirt
A classic anagram. - 8. What is the only English word that ends in 'mt'?
- A. Dreamt (answer)
- B. Hemt
- C. Tempt
- D. Exempt
Variants like 'undreamt' also count. - 9. Which letter is the most commonly used in English?
- A. A
- B. E (answer)
- C. T
- D. S
E appears in roughly 11% of letters. - 10. 'Their', 'there' and 'they're' are examples of what?
- A. Synonyms
- B. Antonyms
- C. Homophones (answer)
- D. Idioms
They sound the same but differ in meaning. - 11. Which word means a sentence using every letter of the alphabet?
- A. Pangram (answer)
- B. Lipogram
- C. Anagram
- D. Monogram
'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' is famous. - 12. What is a 'spoonerism'?
- A. Swapping the first sounds of words (answer)
- B. Using too many adjectives
- C. Speaking backwards
- D. Repeating a word
Named after William Spooner, e.g. 'tease my ears'.
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