Analogies
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50 free Analogies trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
An analogy is a comparison with a pattern inside it: bird is to nest as bee is to hive. Work out how the first pair is linked, then carry the same link across to the second pair. Teachers use analogies to build vocabulary and reasoning, and entrance exams leaned on them for decades. This quiz gives you 50 analogies, each in the classic 'A is to B as C is to what?' form with four choices. They start easy, with young animals, foods and everyday objects, then climb through grammar, maths, science and geography to hard ones drawn from mythology, literature and rare vocabulary. The relationships vary too: part and whole, maker and material, cause and effect, symbol and meaning. It suits middle school and high school students, anyone revising for a verbal reasoning test, and word lovers who want a quick challenge. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can see why the pair fits and pick up a fact along the way. Play online, or print the questions as a worksheet.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Puppy is to dog as cygnet is to which long-necked water bird?
Swan
A swan pair usually mates for life, often bonding before either bird is old enough to breed. Separation does sometimes happen, particularly after a failed nest.
Q 02A pack is to wolves as a murder is to which birds known for problem solving and tool use?
Crows
Crows and ravens are not separate scientific groups: 'raven' is just a general label for the larger species of the same genus, Corvus.
Q 03A raisin is to a grape as a prune is to which stone fruit?
Plum
A plum has to be the right kind to become a prune, since not every variety can be dried that way. In 2001 US growers won approval to call prunes 'dried plums' instead.
Q 04Paper is to wood pulp as everyday window glass is to which main raw material?
Sand
Sand can turn to glass without a furnace: lightning striking it fuses hollow, branching tubes called fulgurites. Quartz sand, or silica, is the main raw material of commercial glassmaking.
Q 05Ordinary wool is to sheep as soft, costly cashmere is to which animal?
Goat
Goat hair is the source: cashmere breeds grow a fine, soft undercoat in winter to keep warm. The name is an old spelling of Kashmir, the Himalayan region whose shawls made the fibre famous.
Q 06On the periodic table, H is to hydrogen as Au is to which chemical element?
Gold
Gold takes its symbol Au from aurum, its Latin name. The far older root behind aurum is thought to have meant 'glow'.
Q 07In the names of the sciences, botany is to plants as entomology is to what?
Insects
Insects are entomology's subject: the name joins the Greek words for 'insect' and 'study'. It is easily confused with etymology, which is the study of the history of words.
Q 08Frodo Baggins is to the Shire as Dorothy Gale is to which American farm state?
Kansas
Kansas loses its hold on Dorothy as the Oz books go on: in later novels the Land of Oz becomes more familiar to her than home. Her aunt and uncle raise her there on a bleak farm.
Q 09Among common fears, arachnophobia is to spiders as claustrophobia is to which trigger?
Confined spaces
Confined spaces are the trigger, and the name says so: claustrum is Latin for 'a shut in place'. Sufferers often fear not being able to breathe properly and running out of oxygen.
Q 10In the NATO phonetic alphabet used by pilots, A is to Alfa as F is to which code word?
Foxtrot
Foxtrot may be shortened to 'Fox' at airports in the United States. Alfa and Juliett carry odd spellings on purpose, to stop people unfamiliar with English mispronouncing them.
Q 11A bee is to a hive as a dam-building beaver is to which kind of home?
Lodge
A lodge comes in two types, built into a bank or standing in open water, and both are entered from underwater. Beavers are the second-largest living rodents, after capybaras.
Q 12A dog is to a bark and a horse to a neigh as a donkey is to which call?
Bray
A bray typically lasts twenty seconds and can be heard more than three kilometres away, which may help donkeys keep in touch across open desert.
Q 13A thermometer is to temperature as a barometer is to which weather measurement?
Air pressure
Air pressure trends on a barometer can forecast short-term changes in the weather. Evangelista Torricelli is usually credited with inventing the instrument in the 1640s.
Q 21In geometry, a circle is to circumference as a rectangle is to which measurement?
Perimeter
Perimeter is the general term, and a circumference is simply the perimeter of a circle or an ellipse. For a wheel, it tells you how far one full turn will roll.
Q 22In grammar, a noun is to an adjective as a verb is to which modifying part of speech?
Adverb
Adverb has become a 'catch-all' label, linguists note, for words that fit no other category. Flat adverbs such as 'drive slow' even share their form with the adjective.
Q 23Among units named after scientists, the ohm is to electrical resistance as the hertz is to what?
Frequency
Frequency in hertz honours Heinrich Hertz, the first person to give conclusive proof that electromagnetic waves exist. One hertz is often described as one cycle per second.
Q 14In causes and effects, drought is to famine as an undersea earthquake is to which natural disaster?
Tsunami
Tsunami is Japanese for 'harbour wave'. Scientists avoid the nickname 'tidal wave', because it wrongly suggests that tides cause them.
Q 15In arithmetic, addition is to a sum as multiplication is to which named result?
Product
A product of no factors at all, the so-called empty product, is defined as 1. For ordinary numbers, the order of multiplying never changes the result.
Q 16Guacamole is to avocado as the Middle Eastern dip hummus is to which main ingredient?
Chickpeas
Chickpeas give hummus its very name: the word is simply Arabic for them. The dish's full name, hummus bi tahini, adds the tahini blended in with lemon juice and garlic.
Q 17Grapes are to wine as pressed apples are to which fermented alcoholic drink?
Cider
Cider was once simply called æppelwīn, 'apple wine', in Old English. In the US and Canada the alcoholic kind is often called hard cider, to tell it apart from unfermented apple juice.
Q 18In an orchestra, a violin is to the string section as a trumpet is to which section?
Brass
Brass tubing, bent twice into a rounded oblong, has been the trumpet's usual build since the late 15th century. The piccolo trumpet has the highest register in the family.
Q 19In the human body, the heart is to the circulatory system as the lungs are to which system?
Respiratory
Respiratory work in the lungs happens in millions of tiny sacs, called alveoli in mammals. Birds have their own version, known as atria.
Q 20Among Shakespeare's tragic couples, Romeo is to Juliet as the Roman general Mark Antony is to whom?
Cleopatra
Cleopatra and Antony reached Shakespeare through Thomas North's 1579 translation of Plutarch's Lives. The play follows the pair up to her suicide during the War of Actium.
Q 24In classical mythology, the Greek Zeus is to the Roman Jupiter as Poseidon is to which Roman god?
Neptune
Neptune was probably tied to freshwater springs before the sea: his festival fell in late July, when water was scarcest. Like his Greek counterpart, he was also a god of horses.
Q 25Among English day names, Thursday is to Thor as Wednesday is to which Norse god?
Odin
Odin was Woden to the Anglo-Saxons, and Wednesday began as Wodnesdæg, 'day of Woden'. It translates the Latin 'day of Mercury', French mercredi, because Woden was read as the Germanic Mercury.
Q 26In the zodiac, Leo is to the lion as Taurus is to which animal?
Bull
Bull is simply what Taurus means in Latin. Babylonian star lists already called the constellation the Bull of Heaven, the beast the goddess Ishtar sends against Gilgamesh.
Q 27In classic fiction, Sherlock Holmes is to Dr Watson as Don Quixote is to which companion?
Sancho Panza
Sancho Panza rides a donkey and is promised an island to govern for his trouble. His earthy sayings in the novel even have a name of their own: sanchismos.
Q 28Among fictional captains, Ahab is to the whaling ship Pequod as Nemo is to which vessel?
Nautilus
Nautilus was a real name first: Jules Verne borrowed it from Robert Fulton's actual submarine of 1800. Nemo's boat has to come up to breathe, much like a whale.
Q 29Among famous firsts, Neil Armstrong is to the Moon as Edmund Hillary is to which peak?
Everest
Everest was only the start for Hillary: less than five years after the 1953 climb with Tenzing Norgay, he reached the South Pole overland.
Q 30Among painters, Leonardo da Vinci is to the Mona Lisa as Edvard Munch is to which artwork?
The Scream
The Scream exists in several versions, two in paint and two in pastels. Both painted ones have been stolen from public museums and later recovered.