Q 01/05

Which military rank is pronounced exactly like the word for a single seed of corn?

A) Colonel

B) Marshal

C) Major

D) Captain

Answer · why

A) Colonel

Colonel sounds like kernel because English first took the word from French as 'coronnel', then respelled it the Italian way; the r-sound won out by ab...

Q 02/05

Which kitchen ingredient shares both its sound and its origin with a word for a blossom?

A) Dough

B) Flour

C) Thyme

D) Leek

Answer · why

B) Flour

Flour was simply spelled 'flower' until about 1830, because it meant the flower, or finest portion, of the ground grain.

Q 03/05

In China, phone numbers containing fours are often avoided because 'four' sounds like which word?

A) Poverty

B) Illness

C) Death

D) Ghost

Answer · why

C) Death

Death and four differ only in tone in Mandarin, sǐ against sì, and the resulting dread of the number is common enough to have a name: tetraphobia.

Q 04/05

Which chess piece's name sounds exactly like the word for the hours of darkness?

A) Rook

B) Bishop

C) Pawn

D) Knight

Answer · why

D) Knight

Knight once began with a spoken k: English speakers stopped pronouncing the k in 'kn' words during the 17th century, which left it identical to night.

Q 05/05

Which five-letter word is pronounced exactly the same after its last four letters are removed?

A) Eerie

B) Queue

C) Ouija

D) Gnome

Answer · why

B) Queue

Queue sounds exactly like its own first letter, Q. The word comes from an Old French word for 'tail' and still means a line of people waiting their tu...