Antonyms and Opposites
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50 free Antonyms and Opposites trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Every word casts a shadow. Hot implies cold, up implies down, and English is full of pairs that define each other by pulling in different directions. Some opposites are obvious, but many hide a story: a word invented on purpose to answer another, or a pair that began life in Latin, Greek or Arabic. This quiz asks what the opposite is, and then goes further. You will meet antonyms from everyday speech, science, music, law and the sea, along with opposites in the wider sense: opposite sides of the globe, of a coin and of a triangle, plus a few from television and pop. Each question carries a clue, often from the word's history, and each answer comes with a short explanation. It suits teachers and parents looking for a ready-made opposites quiz to print, students building their vocabulary, and anyone who enjoys words. The questions climb from familiar pairs to terms that test keen readers.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which continent's name comes from the Greek for 'opposite the Bear', a northern constellation?
Antarctica
Antarctica is named from 'antarktikos', opposite the Arctic, the land beneath the Great Bear. A southern continent was imagined in antiquity, long before the first sighting, probably in 1820.
Q 02Which Latin word for 'left', the opposite of 'dexter', now describes anything menacing in English?
Sinister
Sinister was plain Latin for the left-hand side. Roman augurs took up a Greek habit of reading omens seen on the left as unlucky, and the word slid from a direction to a threat.
Q 03Which word for a lowest point, the opposite of 'zenith', comes from the Arabic for 'opposite'?
Nadir
Nadir comes from the Arabic 'nazir as-samt', the opposite direction. Astronomers used it for the point of the sky directly beneath an observer before it came to mean any low point.
Q 04Which word for an imagined nightmare society was built as the opposite of Thomas More's 'utopia'?
Dystopia
Dystopia swaps the start of 'utopia' for the Greek 'dys-', meaning bad. John Stuart Mill called a government 'dys-topians' in 1868, long before the noun took hold in the 1950s.
Q 05Which country sits opposite Spain on the globe, so that the two are each other's antipodes?
New Zealand
New Zealand's North Island lies almost exactly opposite Spain. Such land-to-land matches are rare: most places, Australia included, have open ocean on the far side of the world.
Q 06Words that are their own opposites, like 'dust', are named after which two-faced Roman god?
Janus
Janus, the god of doorways and beginnings, is usually shown with two faces, so 'Janus words' look both ways. To dust can mean removing fine particles or sprinkling them on a cake.
Q 07Which word, the opposite of 'analogue' in electronics, comes from the Latin for 'finger or toe'?
Digital
Digital goes back to 'digitus', because people counted the numbers below ten on their fingers. Computers that run on digits took the word in the 1940s, set against analogue machines.
Q 08In Seinfeld's 'The Opposite', which character lands a New York Yankees job by defying every instinct?
George
George decides that if every instinct he has is wrong, the reverse must be right. It wins him a date and then the job, after he tells off the Yankees' owner to his face.
Q 09Which opposite of 'entrance' began as a Latin stage direction meaning 'he or she goes out'?
Exit
Exit entered English play scripts as a Latin instruction telling an actor to leave. Its use for a door out of a building is far younger, dating from the 1780s.
Q 10Which muscle works as the opposite of the biceps, straightening the elbow when it contracts?
Triceps
Triceps is Latin for 'three-headed', after the muscle's three parts. Anatomists call it the antagonist of the biceps, because each muscle undoes the other's movement.
Q 11Which side of a right-angled triangle lies opposite the right angle and is always the longest?
Hypotenuse
Hypotenuse comes from the Greek for 'stretching under', because it stretches beneath the right angle. The two shorter sides are known as the legs, or catheti.
Q 12Which of Isaac Newton's laws of motion says every action is met by an equal and opposite reaction?
Third
Third of the laws Newton published in 1687, it says forces come in pairs of equal size. The two forces act on different bodies, a point that short versions of the law often blur.
Q 13Which singer dances with a cartoon cat called MC Skat Kat in the video for 'Opposites Attract'?
Paula Abdul
Q 21Which word describes trees that shed their leaves each autumn, the botanical opposite of 'evergreen'?
Deciduous
Deciduous means 'falling off at maturity', and botanists apply it to petals and ripe fruit as well as leaves. In hot, arid regions such trees drop their foliage in the dry season instead.
Q 22Which opposite of 'nocturnal', from the Latin 'dies', describes animals that are active by day?
Diurnal
Diurnal creatures keep daylight hours, while those busiest at twilight are called crepuscular. Flowers earn the label too: sunflowers open by day to attract bees.
Q 23Which word, the opposite of 'waxing', describes the Moon as its lit face shrinks after a full moon?
Waning
Paula Abdul made the video as a tribute to Gene Kelly, whose film Anchors Aweigh had blended live dancing with animation. It won the Grammy for best music video in 1991.
Q 14On the traditional painter's colour wheel, which colour sits directly opposite red as its complement?
Green
Green faces red on the red-yellow-blue wheel that artists have used since the 18th century. Screens and printers mix colour differently, and in their models red's partner is cyan.
Q 15Which figure of speech pairing contradictory words has a Greek name meaning 'pointedly foolish'?
Oxymoron
Oxymoron joins the Greek 'oxys', sharp, and 'moros', stupid, so the term is an example of itself. 'Moros' is also where English found the word moron.
Q 16Which word, the opposite of 'optimist', is built on the Latin word for 'worst'?
Pessimist
Pessimist rests on the Latin 'pessimus', in a word modelled on 'optimism'. The label was later attached to Schopenhauer's doctrine that this is the worst possible world.
Q 17Which word for an outgoing person did Carl Jung popularise as the opposite of 'introvert'?
Extrovert
Extrovert joins the Latin for 'outside' and 'to turn'. It was first spelled 'extravert'; the 'o' crept in after 1918, in imitation of its opposite number.
Q 18Which word, the opposite of 'professional', comes through French from the Latin for 'lover'?
Amateur
Amateur first meant a 'lover' of some art who did not practise it. In athletics the sneer once ran the other way, falling on the paid professional instead.
Q 19The word 'enemy' comes from Latin 'inimicus', made by putting 'not' before the word for what?
Friend
Friend is 'amicus' in Latin, and 'inimicus' bolts 'in-', meaning not, onto it: literally an 'unfriend'. Spanish 'enemigo' and Italian 'nemico' descend from the same word.
Q 20Which word, the opposite of 'guilty', comes from the Latin for 'not harming'?
Innocent
Innocent joins 'in-', not, and 'nocere', to harm, a relative of the word 'noxious'. Its courtroom sense, cleared of a particular charge, dates from the late 14th century.
Waning comes from the Old English 'wanian', to become smaller gradually. Since the Middle Ages English has used it above all for the monthly lessening of the visible Moon.
Q 24Which word for a ship's left side, the opposite of 'starboard', replaced the similar-sounding 'larboard'?
Port
Port had been an alternative name for the docking side since the 1500s. The Royal Navy made it the official term in 1844 and the United States Navy followed two years later.
Q 25Which closing section of a book, the opposite of a prologue, has a Greek name meaning 'conclusion'?
Epilogue
Epilogue rounds off a story from inside its own world. When the author steps in and speaks directly to the reader, the piece is more properly called an afterword.
Q 26Which opposite of 'inflation' describes prices falling across an economy, as in the Great Depression?
Deflation
Deflation sets in when the inflation rate drops below zero. It is not the same as disinflation, a mere slowdown in price rises that leaves the rate positive.
Q 27Which party to a lawsuit, the opposite of the defendant, is known as the 'claimant' in English courts?
Plaintiff
Plaintiff started out as the same word as 'plaintive', from the Old French for complaining. The legal sense simply kept the older '-iff' spelling.
Q 28In music, which Italian term for gradually getting quieter is the opposite of 'crescendo'?
Diminuendo
Diminuendo translates as 'diminishing' and is shortened to 'dim.' on a score. Composers can also draw it as a hairpin, a long wedge that closes toward the right.
Q 29Which opposite of 'verbose' takes its name from the region around ancient Sparta?
Laconic
Laconic comes from Laconia, the Spartans' homeland. When Philip of Macedon warned what he would do if he invaded, they are said to have sent back a single word: 'If.'
Q 30Which word for a hater of humankind, the philanthropist's opposite, titles a 1666 Molière comedy?
Misanthrope
Misanthrope joins the Greek 'misein', to hate, and 'anthropos', man. Molière's verse play of that name pokes fun at the hypocrisies of French aristocratic society.