Nothing Trivia Quiz

Answer: Nowt

The word start means we need the first letters of the following four words to find the four-letter answer - nowt - a Yorkshire word meaning nothing. It is used in expressions such as 'There's nowt so queer as folk' or 'It's nowt to do with me'. Northallerton, Otley, Whitby, and Thirsk are all towns in Yorkshire.

Answer: Nadir

The word change indicates an anagram. Rearranging the letters of drain leads to the five-letter answer - nadir, which means the lowest point of something, or nothing. The word comes through Old French from the Arabic 'nazir' meaning opposite the zenith. In astronomy it means the point directly below an observer. It is also defined as the lowest or most unsuccessful point.

Answer: Void

Hides indicates a hidden word. The four letter answer, void, is in the middle of avoidance. C. S. Lewis, a British author, said, "Into the void of silence, into the empty space of nothing, the joy of life is unfurled." An ancient Chinese philosopher, Laozi, said "The eternal void is filled with infinite possibilities."

Answer: Duck

A duck is a water bird. The term for a score of nothing in cricket is a duck. This is short for a duck's egg, which looks like 0. A golden duck is even worse, since it means the batter has been dismissed on their first ball, with a score of zero. Somewhat rarer, but still possible, is a diamond duck when the batter is dismissed for a score of nothing without facing a ball.

Answer: Zilch

The word founds indicates that the answer is hidden in the clue. The middle two countries of that short list, Brazil and China, use the last three letters of the former and the first two letters of the latter to make the five-letter answer - zilch, which means nothing.

The word is relatively new; it is thought to date back to the 1960s. It possibly comes from Mr. Zilch who was a character in 'Ballyhoo', an American magazine from the 1930s. The Canadian investor, Peter Cundill, said, "I'm lucky to have the kind of life where the differentiation between work and play is absolutely zilch. I have no idea whether I'm working or whether I'm playing."

Answer: Nix

Removing the three letters of the word use from unisex leaves the three-letter answer - nix, which means nothing. It comes from, and sounds very similar to, the German word, 'nichts', which also means nothing. In the song, 'I Cain't Say No', from the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, 'Oklahoma', Ado Annie sings, "I'm jist a girl who cain't say no, / I'm in a tumble fix. / I always say, come on, le's go- / Jist when I orta say nix!"

Answer: None

The word alters indicates an anagram. Rearranging the four letters of neon gives none, another word for nothing. None is defined as not any, or no one. It comes from the Old English 'ne' meaning not and 'an' meaning one. William Shakespeare wrote, "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."

Answer: Null

Taking the alternate letters from Nuuk Lily gives the four-letter word null, which means nothing. It comes through Middle English and Old French from the Latin 'ne' meaning not and 'ullus' meaning any. John Banville, an Irish novelist, said, "Throughout the 1960s and 1970s devoted Beckett readers greeted each successively shorter volume from the master with a mixture of awe and apprehensiveness it was like watching a great mathematician wielding an infinitesimal calculus, his equations approaching nearer and still nearer to the null point."

Answer: Bottom

Bottom, one of the rude mechanicals in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', is remembered for wearing an ass's head in the play within a play. As well as referring to the lower portion of something, bottom also refers to the very lowest point, which would be nothing.

The Swiss wrestler known as Cesaro said, "I started at the bottom and worked my way up. I think that shows hard work pays off. A good thing takes a while."

Answer: Love

Inside clover, as indicated by the word holds, is the four letter word love. Love is used for a score of zero in tennis, so it is the answer we need. Its derivation is similar to the term for a cricket score of nothing. It is said to come from the French l'oeuf, meaning the egg, which refers to the shape of the egg being like the figure 0.

Answer: Nobody

Move indicates an anagram. The letters in nod boy can be moved to make nobody. A nobody is described as a person of no importance or a nothing. This saying by Yogi Berra, "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." always amuses me. However, Anne Frank made an excellent point with this comment, "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."

Answer: Nada

The last four letters of the word, Canada, give the answer - nada. The origin of the word, as used in English, is attributed to Ernest Hemingway, who borrowed it from Spanish, where it means nothing. In his 1933 story, 'A Clean, Well-lighted Place', he wrote, "Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada. Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nadas and nada us not into nada but deliver us from nada; pues nada. Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee."

Answer: Nought

Changes indicates the requirement for an anagram to solve the clue. Northern can be abbreviated to N, using that with the five letters of tough leads to the six-letter answer - nought, which means nothing. It comes from Old English 'na' meaning no and 'wiht', which means thing. Nought is regarded as a variant spelling of naught, hence the etymology.

However, when spelled with the 'o' rather than the 'a' it is often used to refer to the numerical digit '0'. The pencil and paper game, known as Tic Tac Toe in some parts of the world, is also known as Noughts and Crosses because of the symbols used by the players in the grid.

Answer: Zero

The word covers indicates that the answer is hidden inside the clue. The last two letters of maize and the first two letters of rose give the four letter answer, zero, which means nothing. The word is from the seventeenth century and comes through Old Spanish from the Arabic 'sifr' meaning cipher.

The Dalai Lama said, "A zero itself is nothing, but without a zero you cannot count anything; therefore, a zero is something, yet zero."

Answer: Nil

From the word finally, we know that we need the last letters of the following three words for the three-letter answer - nil. The word comes from the nineteenth century, and is a contraction of the Latin word 'nihil' meaning nothing. It is most commonly used for the result of a soccer match, as in 'His team won four nil!', meaning that the opposition scored no goals while his team scored four.