The Nose
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40 free The Nose trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The nose does far more than hold up a pair of glasses. It warms and filters every breath, plays a part in how food tastes, and can call up a childhood memory faster than a photograph. It is also the star of a surprising number of myths, duels and works of fiction. This quiz turns the best fun facts about the nose into multiple-choice questions. It covers the anatomy and the words doctors use, why people sneeze, how other animals smell their way through the world, and the famous noses of history, art and the stage. It suits curious kids and adults alike, teachers planning a human body lesson, and quiz hosts after a themed round. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so each question leaves a fact worth repeating.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01A popular myth wrongly blames which commander's cannon fire for knocking the nose off the Great Sphinx of Giza?
Napoleon
Napoleon reached Egypt in 1798, but drawings published in 1755 already show the Sphinx without its nose. Chisel marks suggest it was pried off deliberately.
Q 02An elephant's trunk is formed from its nose fused with which other part of its face?
Upper lip
The upper lip and nose fuse early in fetal development, creating a limb with no bone and up to 150,000 separate bundles of muscle.
Q 03In the inherited condition nicknamed ACHOO syndrome, sufferers sneeze when suddenly exposed to what?
Bright light
Bright light, often sunshine after stepping out of the dark, sets off the reflex. It is treated as a real hazard for pilots, who need precise control in glare.
Q 04Which brand of tissues was first marketed as a cold cream remover rather than for sneezes and sniffles?
Kleenex
Kleenex launched in 1924 as a disposable wipe for cold cream. By the 1930s it was sold as a throwaway handkerchief, and that use took over.
Q 05In Carlo Collodi's novel, which birds does the Fairy call in to chisel Pinocchio's overgrown nose down to size?
Woodpeckers
Woodpeckers are summoned after Pinocchio lies about his gold coins. The story made a growing nose a lasting symbol of lying.
Q 06Why does a bout of crying usually leave a person with a runny nose?
Tears drain into it
Tears drain into it through the nasolacrimal ducts, channels running from the eye into the nasal cavity. The same route is why eye drops can sometimes be tasted.
Q 07Which desert animal can close its nostrils to keep out blowing sand?
Camel
Camel nostrils can seal against sand, and they also trap water vapour from each outgoing breath so the body can reabsorb it.
Q 08Which 16th-century astronomer wore a metal nose after losing part of his own in a sword duel?
Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe was 20 when a cousin sliced off the bridge of his nose in a duel fought in the dark. Tests on his exhumed remains in 2012 showed the false one was brass.
Q 09Which farm animals were traditionally used in Europe to sniff out truffles buried underground?
Pigs
Pigs can smell a truffle buried deep in the soil, but they must be distracted with a treat before they eat the find, one reason dogs now compete for the job.
Q 10The German word Gesundheit, often said in America after a sneeze, literally means what in English?
Health
Health is what many languages wish a sneezer: Spanish salud and Italian salute carry the same meaning.
Q 11Snakes gather scent particles from the air and deliver them to the roof of the mouth using which body part?
Tongue
Tongue flicks carry scents to the vomeronasal organ, a second smell sensor in the roof of the mouth that snakes use to sense prey.
Q 12Insects have no nose, so which paired body parts do they mainly use to detect odours?
Antennae
Antennae hold most of an insect's smell-sensing nerve cells, with a second set on small feeler-like mouthparts called palps.
Q 13What is the medical name for the plastic surgery popularly known as a nose job?
Rhinoplasty
Rhinoplasty changes the shape, size or proportions of the nose, and surgeons also use it to make breathing easier.
Q 21Which animals does the Belgian charity APOPO train to sniff out buried landmines and detect tuberculosis?
Rats
Rats of the southern giant pouched species do the work, and they weigh too little to detonate a pressure-activated mine when they walk over it.
Q 22Which flightless bird is the only one with nostrils at the very tip of its long beak?
Kiwi
Kiwi sniff out worms and insects underground without seeing or touching them, a sense of smell that is rare among birds.
Q 23The hongi, a traditional greeting in which two people press noses together, belongs to which people?
Māori
Māori tradition treats the hongi as a sharing of the breath of life, a custom said to have come directly from the gods.
Q 14What everyday name is given to seasonal allergic rhinitis, the sneezing and runny nose set off by pollen?
Hay fever
Hay fever is not a fever at all, since it never raises body temperature. The name stuck because symptoms peak during haying season.
Q 15In which industry is a master creator of new products affectionately known as a nose?
Perfume
Perfume houses borrow the nickname from French, where the word is nez, in tribute to the creator's finely trained sense of smell.
Q 16An aquiline nose, with its prominent curved bridge, is named after the beak of which bird?
Eagle
Eagle-like is the meaning of the Latin aquilinus, a nod to the bird's hooked beak. The same profile is also called a Roman nose.
Q 17Which fish finds its way back from the ocean to its home river largely by smell?
Salmon
Salmon learn the scent of their home stream as young smolts, just before heading out to sea, then follow that smell back upriver to spawn.
Q 18A sudden loss of smell became a widely reported warning sign of which pandemic disease?
COVID-19
COVID-19 turned a lost sense of smell into a headline symptom: a survey of 2 million people found it predicted infection better than a cough or a high temperature.
Q 19What is the name of the thin wall that divides the inside of the nose into left and right airways?
Septum
The septum is built from both bone and cartilage, and the fleshy strip at its outer end, between the nostrils, is called the columella.
Q 20Smelling salts jolt a fainting person awake by releasing which pungent gas?
Ammonia
Ammonia irritates the lining of the nose and lungs, triggering a sharp reflex breath. The salts have been used this way since Roman times.
Q 24Edmond Rostand's play about a gifted poet and swordsman with an enormous nose is named after which hero?
Cyrano de Bergerac
Cyrano de Bergerac's big nose is based on reality, as his portrait shows, though stage productions usually exaggerate it.
Q 25Doctors use the word rhinotillexomania when which everyday habit becomes a compulsive disorder?
Nose picking
Nose picking that turns compulsive can do real damage: one reported case ended with a hole worn through the wall between the nostrils.
Q 26What is the medical term for the inability to smell, sometimes called smell blindness?
Anosmia
Anosmia is more than an inconvenience: people who have it cannot detect gas leaks, smoke or spoiled food.
Q 27Which group of viruses is the most frequent cause of the common cold?
Rhinovirus
Rhinovirus is the most common viral infection in humans, and its name comes from the Greek word for nose.
Q 28Which Renaissance artist's nose was permanently flattened by a punch from fellow pupil Pietro Torrigiano?
Michelangelo
Michelangelo was 17 when the blow landed, and the crooked nose it left is plain to see in portraits of him.
Q 29The power of smells to revive vivid memories is named after which French novelist and his madeleine?
Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust wrote in Swann's Way of the taste and smell of a madeleine dipped in tea bringing a rush of memories back from the past.
Q 30Which Galápagos reptile gets rid of excess sea salt by sneezing it out through its nostrils?
Marine iguana
Marine iguana heads often look white with crusted salt, which glands at the nostrils filter out of the blood before each sneeze-like blast.