Authors' favorite words (used most often)
0Loading crowd target
Questions and sources
Authors' Favorite Words (used Most Often) — Daily trivia Monday, May 25, 2026: questions and answers
All 10 questions with answers and explanations. Play this daily
Q 01Which colour word did data journalist Ben Blatt find was Vladimir Nabokov's statistical favourite?
- ACrimson
- BOchre
- CMauve
- DAzure
Show answer
Mauve
Mauve topped Nabokov's list, followed by 'banal' and 'pun'; a synesthete, he saw colours when he pictured letters and sounds.
Q 02Of 50 classic and bestselling authors, who used the most exclamation points, about 1,105 per 100,000 words?
- AJames Joyce
- BTom Wolfe
- CJ.R.R. Tolkien
- DE.B. White
Show answer
James Joyce
James Joyce used about 1,105 exclamation points per 100,000 words, one of the counts in Ben Blatt's book, which also caught Tolkien leaning too often on 'suddenly'.
Q 03Which bestselling novelist opens nearly half her books with the weather, by data journalist Ben Blatt's count?
- ANora Roberts
- BDanielle Steel
- CJodi Picoult
- DAgatha Christie
Show answer
Danielle Steel
Danielle Steel opens 46% of her 92 novels with the weather, Ben Blatt counted, more than twice the rate of fellow romance writer Nicholas Sparks.
Q 04Ben Blatt found which author's statistically distinctive favourite words were 'concierge', 'astern' and 'cognac'?
- AErnest Hemingway
- BIan Fleming
- CJohn Cheever
- DTruman Capote
Show answer
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway's list follows Blatt's rule for favourite words, used in at least half an author's books and far above the general rate, so it reads like a tour of hotels, boats and bars.
Q 05'Civility', 'fancying' and 'imprudence' were the statistically favourite words of which novelist?
- ACharlotte Brontë
- BJane Austen
- CGeorge Eliot
- DElizabeth Gaskell
Show answer
Jane Austen
Jane Austen's list obeys Blatt's rules against proper nouns and rare words, so it surfaces her characters' habits of judgement rather than their names.
Q 06Charles Dickens is popularly, but wrongly, credited with coining which word in Bleak House?
- AFlummox
- BSawbones
- CRampage
- DBoredom
Show answer
Boredom
Boredom was in print in The Albion by 1829, more than 20 years before Bleak House, yet Dickens is still widely credited with coining it.
Q 07Which Jazz Age novelist's favourite words were 'facetious', 'muddled' and 'sanitarium'?
- AWilliam Faulkner
- BJohn Dos Passos
- CSinclair Lewis
- DF. Scott Fitzgerald
Show answer
F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'sanitarium' suits Tender Is the Night, whose heroine Nicole Diver is a psychiatric patient married to her own psychiatrist.
Q 08Which word did crime novelist Michael Connelly admit is his favourite, using it over 100 times per book?
- ASighed
- BNodded
- CShrugged
- DPaused
Show answer
Nodded
Blatt dubbed common words an author leans on this hard 'nod words' in his honour, as opposed to the rare 'cinnamon words'.
Q 09Which favourite word did Ray Bradbury say reminded him of his grandmother's pantry?
- ANutmeg
- BVanilla
- CCinnamon
- DClove
Show answer
Cinnamon
Blatt named the whole category of rare-but-overused words 'cinnamon words' after him; Bradbury also leans on 'spearmint' and 'ramshackle'.
Q 10In a letter to critic Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Emily Dickinson declared 'My Business is' what?
- AEternity
- BCircumference
- CSoul
- DHeaven
Show answer
Circumference
'My business is circumference,' Emily Dickinson wrote to Higginson, who printed the letter in The Atlantic in 1891, five years after her death.
How to play
- One question at a time, four options. Tap an answer to lock it in.
- You see the answer and a short explanation right away.
- Harder questions and faster answers earn more points. Share your score at the end.