Drop a Letter Ladder 35 Trivia Quiz

Answer: alliteration

Alliteration is a curious little literary device in which there is a succession of words (although not always a complete succession; there may be the odd preposition in between words) with a similar sound. Take the question text above. "A succession of similar sounds in a sentence" contains alliteration, because of the 's' sound of all those close-together words.

Answer: retaliation

There's quite a few 're' words that are synonymous with retaliation. Revenge is one, but there's also retribution, repayment, reciprocation, returning, requital and retorting. Of course, some of these words are rather situational dependent on the severity of the thing that's causing you to retaliate.

Answer: alteration

You might hear the word alteration in conjunction with an article of clothing that needs changing for whatever reason. Likewise, proofreading a piece of writing may require a small alteration, ie an edit or amendment. Add a c to alteration and you've got an altercation which, of course, may lead to a retaliation of some sort. Hey, we've come full circle. Almost.

Answer: rationale

Let's go hypothetical (and ever so slightly vague) here. If you do something, you might be asked for the rationale for your actions. Basically, you'll be explaining why you did what you did. It's your reasoning, it's your logic, it's your explanation.

Answer: oriental

You might have heard eastern Asia referred to as the Orient. Thus, you can deduce that Oriental refers to this particular area of the world. Using this term to refer to the people rather than the geographical region is thought of as offensive. It's much better to refer to them by their individual nationalities: Japanese, Thai, Malaysian, what have you.

Answer: aileron

The wings of an aeroplane are, perhaps more technically, aerofoils, helping the plane get lift and take off into the sky. Flaps on each wing called ailerons help it bank (that is, tip to one side). These ailerons control the air flow on each side of the plane and affect its lift, thereby allowing it to tilt and move laterally.

Answer: linear

A general formula for a linear equation is y = mx + c, where m is the gradient of the line and c is the point at which the line intercepts the y-axis of the graph (in some countries, this y-intercept is represented by b). The linear part of it comes from the fact that the highest power of x in the equation is 1. An equation with x^2 as the highest power of x would be quadratic, and, when graphed, would produce a parabola. If you don't want to use these fancy names like linear, quadratic, cubic or quartic (the list, of course, goes on), simply saying, "A polynomial of the nth degree" would suffice.

Answer: renal

You might have heard of your renal system, which is essentially your urinary system. The kidneys play a vital role in filtering waste from your blood, reabsorbing nutrients like glucose and, of course, producing urine. Nephritic is another term used to refer to the kidneys and both are used interchangeably.

The only difference between the two is their derivation: renal derives from the Latin word for the kidney, while nephritic (or, perhaps, the nephro- prefix) is of Greek stock.

Answer: earl

The rank of earl tends to be predominantly British, equal to that of a count in mainland Europe. As such, the name given to the wife of an earl is not, as you might expect, an earless (that's earl-ess, not ear-less) but a countess. Earls outrank viscounts but are outranked by marquises. Perhaps the most famous earl around the world is not a person but a variety of tea, namely Earl Grey, which is supposedly named after a Prime Minister of the UK in the 1830s, the (2nd) Earl Grey.

Answer: lea

As well as being an area of grassland (with or without livestock roaming around and doing their thing), yarn can be measured in lengths known as leas. The length of a lea will vary depending on the type of yarn: a lea of cotton, say, would be about 120 yards long, while a lea of linen will stretch for 300 yards. Imagine that: a long line of linen in a lea. Oh, we're back to alliteration! Definitely full circle.