Q 01/05

Which country's Latin motto, A mari usque ad mare, means From Sea to Sea and comes from Psalm 72?

A) Canada

B) Australia

C) New Zealand

D) Iceland

Answer · why

A) Canada

Canada took the phrase from Psalm 72:8 when its coat of arms was redesigned in 1921. In 2007 the three territorial premiers asked for a third sea, to ...

Q 02/05

Which Latin phrase was the unofficial US motto until In God We Trust became official in 1956?

A) Annuit coeptis

B) Novus ordo seclorum

C) Semper fidelis

D) E pluribus unum

Answer · why

D) E pluribus unum

E pluribus unum, meaning out of many, one, has sat on the Great Seal since 1782. Its thirteen letters match the thirteen colonies that became the firs...

Q 03/05

Which country, born of a slave revolt, shares France's motto Liberty, Equality, Fraternity?

A) Senegal

B) Haiti

C) Gabon

D) Algeria

Answer · why

B) Haiti

Haiti names the three words as its national motto in its constitution. Its coat of arms carries a different line, about unity.

Q 04/05

Botswana's one-word motto, Pula, also the name of its currency, means what in Setswana?

A) Gold

B) Peace

C) Rain

D) Cattle

Answer · why

C) Rain

Rain is so scarce in Botswana, home to much of the Kalahari Desert, that the word doubles as a wish for blessing or fortune. Three wavy lines on the c...

Q 05/05

Switzerland's unofficial motto, One for all, all for one, was made famous by which Dumas novel?

A) The Count of Monte Cristo

B) The Black Tulip

C) The Three Musketeers

D) The Corsican Brothers

Answer · why

C) The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers made the line famous in 1844, and the Swiss took it up in 1868 to rally aid after floods in the Alps. Its Latin form is written i...