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Unusual and Obscure Words Quizzes, Trivia and Puzzles
Unusual and Obscure Words Quizzes, Trivia

Unusual and Obscure Words Trivia

Unusual and Obscure Words Trivia Quizzes

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Fun Trivia
61.
  Weird and Wonderful Words 6    
Multiple Choice
 20 Qns
Some weird words that I have discovered. Tell me what they mean.
Tough, 20 Qns, steveneldaher, Feb 20 23
Tough
steveneldaher
Feb 20 23
543 plays
62.
  "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili" and Me    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Tackling "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili" (translated by Joscelyn Godwin) is quite the challenge, my dictionary is getting a workout. How about yours?
Tough, 10 Qns, TemptressToo, Apr 26 24
Tough
TemptressToo
Apr 26 24
265 plays
63.
  Weird and Wonderful Words 1    
Multiple Choice
 20 Qns
I will give you an uncommon word and four alternate meanings for that word. I suggest you make your choices with the help of a very good dictionary. All words in this quiz are real.
Tough, 20 Qns, steveneldaher, Feb 11 13
Tough
steveneldaher
496 plays
64.
  Weird and Wonderful Words 2    
Multiple Choice
 20 Qns
I will give you an obscure word and four alternate meanings. You select the meaning you think is correct. I suggest you use a dictionary when attempting this quiz.
Tough, 20 Qns, steveneldaher, Oct 14 24
Tough
steveneldaher
Oct 14 24
598 plays
65.
  From the Hidden Depths (of the dictionary)    
Multiple Choice
 15 Qns
Baloo's been dictionary diving again and has fished up some strange words. But beware - some of these might be fakes...
Difficult, 15 Qns, Baloo55th, Jan 22 04
Difficult
Baloo55th
544 plays
66.
  Loads of One Letter    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Some words, like these, just contain a lot of one letter. Unless otherwise specified, the letters are not consecutive, and I am using the Scrabble Official Word List (North American), the OWL, for all of my answers.
Average, 10 Qns, Oidioid32123, Oct 21 24
Average
Oidioid32123
Oct 21 24
517 plays
67.
  What Does That Unusual Word Mean?    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
10 somewhat obscure words. What is their real meaning?
Difficult, 10 Qns, awkins, Apr 21 02
Difficult
awkins
2486 plays
68.
  Strange Exotic Dictionary Words    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Here is a strange exotic mixture of words delved out of a standard Websters' collegiate dictionary, happy surfing!
Tough, 10 Qns, Bruyere, May 04 08
Tough
Bruyere editor
1177 plays
69.
  Some interesting or offbeat words    
Multiple Choice
 15 Qns
Here are 15 words which I find intriguing. I will give the definition and you pick out the word being defined. You can figure out many of these by paying attention to the roots.
Difficult, 15 Qns, chessart, Apr 17 04
Difficult
chessart gold member
822 plays
70.
  Interesting Words for the Discriminating Pedant    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
I give the word, you the meaning. Big vocabulary OR etymological savviness a must. xaosdog (xaosdog.com) attests that each word appearing herein has been accepted as a legitimate English word by at least one major dictionary AND one minor dictionary.
Very Difficult, 10 Qns, xaosdog, Apr 21 02
Very Difficult
xaosdog
1056 plays
71.
  Bizarre Words 2    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
I had some requests for more of this kind of quiz. These are words we do not often hear. The word 'debulliate', means to boil over. For all word lovers out there, good luck!
Tough, 10 Qns, finlady, Feb 20 20
Tough
finlady
Feb 20 20
1174 plays
72.
  Rare Words    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Here are some rare but exciting words to employ while making yourself the life of any party!
Difficult, 10 Qns, thejazzkickazz, May 18 20
Difficult
thejazzkickazz gold member
May 18 20
937 plays
73.
  Words Worth(e) Wielding    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
I will present some new and wonderful words...some may have similar meanings and some quite different connotations despite their similarities...in the end, I hope you bag these words and use them, occasionally...
Tough, 10 Qns, thejazzkickazz, Oct 19 23
Tough
thejazzkickazz gold member
Oct 19 23
535 plays
74.
  Weird Words for the Wise    
Multiple Choice
 15 Qns
Weird words for the wise who have a few spots left in their five-figure vocabularies.
Very Difficult, 15 Qns, shiloh65, Aug 20 19
Very Difficult
shiloh65
Aug 20 19
2111 plays
75.
  You Don't Know Jack ... about words    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Test your vocabulary in this "You Don't Know Jack" style word quiz ... Flight attendents prepare for take-off.
Tough, 10 Qns, katsdrama, Dec 25 14
Tough
katsdrama
1415 plays
76.
  Loads of One Letter(s) 3: the Leftovers    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Looking back at my Loads of One Letter quizzes, I realized I haven't used six of the letters. This is what this quiz is for. All of these words will contain loads of one (or more) of those letters. As always, all of my answers use the OWL dictionary.
Tough, 10 Qns, Oidioid32123, Mar 13 22
Tough
Oidioid32123
Mar 13 22
287 plays
77.
  Five Interesting Words    
Multiple Choice
 5 Qns
Here are a few fine words for your enjoyment and amusement. Please play and be not worried about your score!
Tough, 5 Qns, thejazzkickazz, Nov 15 20
Tough
thejazzkickazz gold member
Nov 15 20
1011 plays
78.
  Odd Words    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
I love unusual words. Here are 10 I found recently - all you have to do is tell me what they mean. All definitions are from Chambers 20th Century Dictionary.
Difficult, 10 Qns, Mink, May 04 08
Difficult
Mink
939 plays
79.
  Is that really a word?    
Multiple Choice
 15 Qns
Some wonderful words exist in English - but not ALL of these do! Spot the imaginary one(s) and identify the real meaning of the others.
Difficult, 15 Qns, Baloo55th, Jun 30 03
Difficult
Baloo55th
745 plays
80.
  Wine-Dark Depths of English    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
I give the definitions. Each word sought here pertains to potent drink. xaosdog (xaosdog.com) attests that each word sought has been accepted as a legitimate English word by at least one major dictionary AND one minor dictionary.
Difficult, 10 Qns, xaosdog, Sep 19 09
Difficult
xaosdog
603 plays
81.
  Odd-Sounding Words    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Here's a vocabulary exercise- I've selected words that have an interesting sound to them.
Tough, 10 Qns, robert362, May 04 20
Tough
robert362
May 04 20
1222 plays
82.
  Is that really a word - oh no, more of them!    
Multiple Choice
 15 Qns
Yes, more of those obscure words - that may not even exist!
Difficult, 15 Qns, Baloo55th, Jun 26 24
Difficult
Baloo55th
Jun 26 24
536 plays
83.
  Vocabulary Warm-Up    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Here are some fascinating words dug out from my O.E.D. for your amusement. Have fun.
Difficult, 10 Qns, thejazzkickazz, Jul 10 24
Difficult
thejazzkickazz gold member
Jul 10 24
1121 plays
84.
  Loads of One Letter 2: The Second Half    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
A sequel to "Loads of One Letter", this quiz will take you through our alphabet's second half where we look at words with lots of one letter. I'm using the Scrabble Tournament Word List (American). Letters are not consecutive unless specifically stated.
Tough, 10 Qns, Oidioid32123, Oct 26 22
Tough
Oidioid32123
Oct 26 22
227 plays
85.
  Difficult Words Test    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
More words than you know what to do with...have fun!
Very Difficult, 10 Qns, thejazzkickazz, Nov 17 16
Very Difficult
thejazzkickazz gold member
723 plays
86.
  Bizarre Words    
Multiple Choice
 5 Qns
These are words we do not often hear or read. Pridian pertains to the day before yesterday. These will be multiple choice. Good luck!
Tough, 5 Qns, finlady, Nov 19 14
Tough
finlady
679 plays
87.
  Say What?    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
All of these are actual words in the English language. Choose the correct definition. The pronunciations immediately follow the words.
Difficult, 10 Qns, boneponio, Dec 27 18
Difficult
boneponio
Dec 27 18
749 plays
88.
  Unusual Letter Combinations    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
In this quiz, I will be testing you on your knowledge of words with unusual letter combinations of many different kinds. Thanks to salami_swami for the idea. For all of my answers and info, I will be using the OWL (American) dictionary.
Difficult, 10 Qns, Oidioid32123, Mar 27 11
Difficult
Oidioid32123
429 plays
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Unusual and Obscure Words Trivia Questions

61. What profession would be interested in a raster?

From Quiz
All Boggled Up II

Answer: Television repairman

A raster is a pattern of lines produced by scanning an electronic beam, as on a television screen. It comes from the German word 'raster' which means screen.

62. What does the verb sate mean?

From Quiz All Boggled Up I

Answer: Indulge to satisfaction or excess

To sate means to satisfy an appetite, sometimes to excess. Sate can also be the past tense of sit.

63. What would you find in a nidus?

From Quiz More Fun with Words

Answer: bacteria

Actually, the word "nidus" has several meanings: 1) A nest, such as for the eggs of insects, spiders, or small animals 2) cavity in which spores develop 3) central point or focus of bacterial growth in a living organism 4) point or place at which something originates, accumulates, or develops, as the center around which salts of calcium, uric acid, or bile acid form calculi. (from the American Heritage Dictionary)

64. What is a "Mattock"?

From Quiz Unusual Words and their Meanings

Answer: A tool

A mattock is an agricultural tool shaped like a pick axe, with an adze and a chisel edge as the ends of the head.

65. What is the meaning of SPIGNEL?

From Quiz Odd Words

Answer: A European mountain plant

This is a plant from mountain areas in Europe. It is also know as baldmoney or meu. The origin is obscure.

66. What does a spermologer collect?

From Quiz Fun with Words

Answer: Seeds

A spermologer is a collector or gatherer of seeds. I have also seen this word used to describe someone who collects trivia.

67. The term 'Flagitious' looks similar to Flagellate, but the connotation is quite different. Perhaps, we can use it and invert the two words just for fun. What does flagitious mean?

From Quiz Rare Words

Answer: grossly criminal

Can you creatively use that with malversation? (bad behavior).

68. Often seeing enormous lines at McDonald's and experiencing the strange wafting smells, I wonder why the 'eugonic' food is so popular. What are eugonic substances generally called?

From Quiz Difficult Words

Answer: Artificial food

69. A 'Zeigarnik' is someone who has a strange tendency. What type of tendency is this, do you think?

From Quiz Useful but Obscure Words

Answer: remembering uncompleted tasks

Another of my favorite words is Zugzwang, a chess term.

70. The state of drunkenness.

From Quiz Wine-Dark Depths of English

Answer: oenophlygia

FARCTATIA is a fake word based on a word meaning 'having over-eaten.' OINOBRILIA is a fake word containing a Greek root meaning 'wine.' SAPONACIA is a fake word based on a real word meaning 'soapy.'

71. What is the definition of dentiloquist?

From Quiz Bizarre Words

Answer: someone who speaks with closed teeth

Dentiloquist is a noun.

72. The amount by which a container falls short of being full:

From Quiz Some interesting or offbeat words

Answer: ullage

This term is frequently used in connection with wine bottles, to refer to the air space between the top of the wine and the base of the cork. Over time the ullage will increase as evaporation occurs, especially when the bottle has been kept in an environment which is too dry.

73. What is the synonym for self-restraint or abstinence?

From Quiz Vocabulary Warm-Up

Answer: encraty

74. A 'Poussecafe' (Or Pousse-cafe) is a type of

From Quiz Odd-Sounding Words

Answer: Drink

Several liqueurs are used. They are different colors and do not blend, thus creating a striped effect - one color on top of the other.

75. Which word does not mean to equivocate?

From Quiz Difficult Words

Answer: parley

76. Leechcraft was formerly a term to signify which occupation?

From Quiz Five Interesting Words

Answer: Medicine

As 'witchcraft' is to witches, 'leechcraft' once was to doctors, who used leeches. From Brewer's dictionary we are told of the following etymology: 'Anglo-Saxon, læce, one who relieves pain, læcecræft.'

77. "Eleemosynary" is the name of a 1985 one-act play by Lee Blessing about three successive generations of women. What is the meaning of the adjective "eleemosynary"?

From Quiz Sesquipedalius' E Words

Answer: charitable, benevolent

The word "eleemosynary" means beneficent, generous, benevolent, given to charity, and/or philanthropic. Blessing used it as the title of her play in the sense that the reconciliation of generations at odds with each other can only occur in a spirit of charitable goodwill. The term eleemosynary entered English in the late 16th century denoting an almshouse, a place where money, food, and clothing were distributed to the poor. It derived from the Medieval Latin "eleemosynarius", which was derived from the Ancient Greek "eleemosyne", meaning pity or mercy.

78. Between the human brain and spinal cord, two bunches of connecting fibres compose the medulla oblongata, from which tracts (called the pyramidal tracts) decussate at the caudal end. In this context, what does "decussate" mean?

From Quiz Sesquipedalius' D Words

Answer: to cross over each other

The adjective "decussate" describes a crossing and derives from the Roman numeral X - an uppercase X in Latin is called a "decussis". Decussate things are intersecting or crossed. In botany, decussate leaves are those arranged alternatively at right angles to each other. A Roman "decussis" was a bronze coin issued 215-212 BC with the letter X marked on it.

79. In Christopher Buckley's "Little Green Men" (1999), he wrote, "the porcelain on the sink was rusted through ... the faucet dripped, and emitted chthonic rumblings from the hotel's no doubt hellish bowels." What does chthonic mean?

From Quiz Sesquipedalius' C Words

Answer: a Lovecraftian subterranean realm

H.P. Lovecraft did not himself write about the Chthonians. Other authors expanding upon Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos did. Brian Lumley referred to them in his short story "Cement Surroundings". Other writers developed this part of the mythos. Chthonians are fictional creatures, burrowers under the Earth's surface. The adjectival use of the term refers to things located underground, to subterranean creatures, to anything below the surface of the earth. [How on earth did Christopher Buckley know that!?]

80. Everyone who has heard of "smog" knows what it looks like and knows that it's fog mixed with what substance?

From Quiz Portmanteau? Don't Mind if I Do

Answer: Smoke

The word "smog" was coined by Dr. Henry Des Voeux while writing a paper to the English Public Health Congress in 1905. Doctor Des Voeux knew that he needed to illustrate the difference between regular fog and the coal infused fog that draped over London during the Industrial Revolution so the word "smog" was formed. "Smog" is identified as emissions and fumes from cars and how they react to sunlight.

81. Touch not the demon drink or you'll end up looking welmish. What is the meaning of that word?

From Quiz Can You Define These Words 2

Answer: Pale and sickly looking

Anything that makes your stomach churn in a rather unpleasant fashion can have you looking welmish - pale and green around the gills - not just an over consumption of alcohol. Some people can't handle the sight of blood, for example, and their faces reflect that aversion. And children with dark green mucous running from their noses down towards their mouths - that's when you'll see me looking most decidedly welmish. It makes me feel really ill. Welmish appeared in the vernacular in the late 17th century, but quickly faded from use within a couple of years.

82. Some people will tear theirs out trying to define "lissotrichous". What does it mean?

From Quiz Ten Very Unusual Words

Answer: Having straight hair

And there's not much else to say about lissotrichous than that. It simply means you have long, and hopefully smooth and glossy, locks. Somewhat akin to the look of an afghan hound.

83. Which country called their ruler a "czar" or "tsar"?

From Quiz Words with Unusual Starting Letters

Answer: Russia

The term "czar" comes from "Caesar". Ruler were also called czars in Bulgaria and Serbia.

84. Can you define "cachinnation"?

From Quiz An Iota of Obscure Words

Answer: Loud and hysterical laughter

Cachinnation is a sound most frequently heard on this site when players come up against a particularly difficult challenge they have to overcome. Gales of loud, convulsive laughter verging on the hysterical can be heard echoing right throughout the halls at such a time.

85. What on earth is a zenzizenzizenzic?

From Quiz Start a New Dictionary

Answer: A mathematical term

This is a ghastly mathematical term that means the square of the square of a square. A number to its eighth power in other words. As I can't even pronounce it, let alone put it into practice, will have to leave the explanation at that. Fortunately for all concerned, this is an obsolete term no longer in common use. Sometimes we get lucky.

86. Do you know what a bloomery is?

From Quiz Misleading Words

Answer: An old type furnace for smelting iron

These fascinating old pieces of equipment were initially made out of clay, stone, or even earth, and packed so densely that their walls were heat resistant. They looked a little like overturned flowerpots. A pipe fed in through one of walls at the bottom, which, when attached to bellows, allowed air to enter the furnace. On another side was another small opening to allow for the burning of charcoal. The ore to be smelted was broken up into small pieces and dropped down with equal amounts of more charcoal through an opening at the top of the furnace onto the already burning charcoal below. Amazingly so, the heat within then alters the content of the iron oxides in the small pieces of ore into metallic iron, BUT without melting the ore. Instead they drop down to the bottom of the bloomery into a mass. This is later reheated to remove the impurities and then beaten into the required shape. This is even more amazing. By altering the heat and air flow within the furnace, the iron ore can be changed into steel as well! These old bloomeries have been found from eras in history dating back to more than 3,000 BC. Oh my goodness, the mind of man and his thousands of inventions is a never ending source of fascination for me. How on earth did they ever think of that in the first place?

87. Dad was an angler. What does an angler do?

From Quiz It's a whatch-amacallit, you know?

Answer: He's a fisherman

In the mid 15th century, the word described a 'fisher with hook and line'.

88. Nanny plants rows of beans and peas. The bean blossoms have winged corollas that look like butterflies. What word does she use to describe them?

From Quiz Bodacious Word Endings

Answer: papilionaceous

Papilionaceous means resembling a butterfly; carbonaceous has to do with carbon; sequacious means following in a sequence; and rapacious relates to seizing by force.

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