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Progressive Words Trivia Quiz

Use my cryptic, dictionary, and mathematical hints to identify words formed by an arithmetic progression of letters. Example inside.

A multiple-choice quiz by gentlegiant17. Estimated time: 8 mins.

Author
gentlegiant17

Time
8 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
280,047

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Very Difficult

Avg Score
4 / 10

Plays
313

Question 1 of 10

1. Definition: WORD1 is a "progressive word of order N" if it is formed by an arithmetic progression of letters.

Sample question: I heard that I am in debt of a letter.
Sample hint: cryptic, N=8, 3-letter word.
Sample answer: OWE
Sample explanation for cryptic: OWE sounds like O.
Sample explanation for progression: N=8, to get the word OWE, progress 8 letters from O to W and 8 letters from W to E (OpqrstuvWxyzabcdE)

Note: Some of the progressions in this quiz are cyclic (i.e. Z is allowed to be shifted up to A).

Hint: A progressive word of order N is also a progressive word of order N-26. This allows you to regress, rather than to progress, when it is easier to do so.

Ready to go? Enter at your peril, be sure to use the hints and have fun!

At the end of the race, the champion declared "I am number 1".

Answer: (cryptic, N=2, 3-letter word)

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Question 2 of 10

2. Someone told me that this mammal has just arrived at the African plains.

Answer: (cryptic, N=7, 3-letter word)

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Question 3 of 10

3. Soft moist farmyard manure, slimy dirt or filth.

Answer: (dictionary definition, N=8, 4-letter word)

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Question 4 of 10

4. A progressive word which can be added to the following words, creating new meaningful words: NOTE. WORD. BOARD.

Answer: (common bond, N=20 (also N=-6), 3-letter word)

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Question 5 of 10

5. A friend of mine who was not accepted by the North American broadcasting industry.

Answer: (cryptic, N=11, 3-letter word)

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Question 6 of 10

6. WORD1 is a progressive word of order X.
WORD2 is a progressive word of order Y.
WORD1 is a mirror image of WORD2.
What is the value of X+Y?

Answer: (a number)

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Question 7 of 10

7. Who am I? Kingdom: Animalia. Phylum: Chordata. Class: Mammalia. Order: Carnivora. Family: Canidae.

Answer: (a shorthand cow?!?!, N=9, 3-letter word)

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Question 8 of 10

8. It's somewhat at the back of my mind, or maybe on the top of my head?

Answer: (cryptic, N=19 (also N=-7), 3-letter word)

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Question 9 of 10

9. An apparatus used to seal a container's inner perimeter, e.g. a bottle cork, a rubber plug of a laboratory tube.

Answer: (dictionary definition, N=19 (also N=-7), 4-letter word)

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Question 10 of 10

10. Rearrange a petal and receive the generic name for an element of the outer part of a flower.

Answer: (cryptic dictionary definition!, N=11, 5-letter word)

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Definition: WORD1 is a "progressive word of order N" if it is formed by an arithmetic progression of letters. Sample question: I heard that I am in debt of a letter. Sample hint: cryptic, N=8, 3-letter word. Sample answer: OWE Sample explanation for cryptic: OWE sounds like O. Sample explanation for progression: N=8, to get the word OWE, progress 8 letters from O to W and 8 letters from W to E (OpqrstuvWxyzabcdE) Note: Some of the progressions in this quiz are cyclic (i.e. Z is allowed to be shifted up to A). Hint: A progressive word of order N is also a progressive word of order N-26. This allows you to regress, rather than to progress, when it is easier to do so. Ready to go? Enter at your peril, be sure to use the hints and have fun! At the end of the race, the champion declared "I am number 1".

Answer: ACE

At the end of the word "race", we have the word "ace". Ace is synonymous with "champion". Ace is also the number 1 card.

The progression:
N=2, A->C->E (AbCdE)

2. Someone told me that this mammal has just arrived at the African plains.

Answer: GNU

The gnu is a mammal whose natural habitat is the African plains. The word "gnu" is pronounced very much like "new".

The progression:
N=7, G->N->U (GhijklmNopqrstU)

p.s. did you know that a herd of gnu is called an implausibility?

3. Soft moist farmyard manure, slimy dirt or filth.

Answer: MUCK

According to Merriam-Webster "muckety-muck" is an important and often arrogant person. This is reminiscent of the Yiddish word "schmuck" which has the same meaning (yes, among others), which also found its way to nowadays Hebrew slang.

The progression:
N=8, M->U->C->K (MnopqrstUvwxyzabCdefghijK)

4. A progressive word which can be added to the following words, creating new meaningful words: NOTE. WORD. BOARD.

Answer: KEY

KEYNOTE. KEYWORD. KEYBOARD.

The progression:
N=20 also means N=-6, K->E->Y (KjihgfEdcbazY).

5. A friend of mine who was not accepted by the North American broadcasting industry.

Answer: PAL

A pal is a friend. The PAL colour encoding scheme was not adopted in USA and in Canada which chose to use the NTSC scheme instead.

The progression:
N=11, P->A->L (PqrstuvwxyzAbcdefghijkL)

6. WORD1 is a progressive word of order X. WORD2 is a progressive word of order Y. WORD1 is a mirror image of WORD2. What is the value of X+Y?

Answer: 0

Let's assume WORD1 consists of letter1,letter2,....,letterN.
Since WORD2 is its mirror image, it consists of letterN,...,letter2,letter1.
So if WORD1 is progressive of order X, then WORD2 is progressive of order -X.
Thus, Y=-X and X+Y=0.

Those of you who replied 26 were also correct. This is because the statement that an order of N is equivalent to an order of N-26. So order -X is equivalent to order 26-X.
Thus Y=26-X and X+Y=26.

Actually, since the finite group of alphabet letters consists of 26 numbers, all orders should be calculated modulo 26. An order of 26 is equivalent to an order of 0, and so is an order of 52,78 and so on.

Examples of progressive words which are mirror images of one another:
PAL (order 11) LAP (order 15, or -11)
RAJ (order 9) JAR (order 17, or -9)

7. Who am I? Kingdom: Animalia. Phylum: Chordata. Class: Mammalia. Order: Carnivora. Family: Canidae.

Answer: FOX

A cow is a female (abbreviated "f") ox which gives the fox, described in the question body.

The progression:
N=9, F->O->X (FghijklmnOpqrstuvwX)

8. It's somewhat at the back of my mind, or maybe on the top of my head?

Answer: HAT

The word "hat" is at the back of the word "somewhat".

The progression:
N=19 also means N=-7, H->A->T (HgfedcbAzyxwvuT)

9. An apparatus used to seal a container's inner perimeter, e.g. a bottle cork, a rubber plug of a laboratory tube.

Answer: BUNG

The noun bung has another meaning. It's pretty gruesome though. If you insist, go to http://m-w.com/dictionary/bung

The progression:
N=19 also means N=-7, B->U->N->G (BazyxwvUtsrqpoNmlkjihG)

10. Rearrange a petal and receive the generic name for an element of the outer part of a flower.

Answer: TEPAL

A petal and a sepal are examples for a tepal. And, "tepal" is an anagram of "petal". Actually, "tepal" is derived from a phonetic merge of "petal" and "sepal". It is usually used when all segments the outer part of a flower are identical in both shape and colour. Once a differentiation can be established, the terminology is refined and they are referred to as petals and sepals.

The progression:
N=11, T->E->P->A->L (TuvwxyzabcdEfghijklmnoPqrstuvwxyzAbcdefghijkL)

Thanks for investing your time in taking my quiz, hope it was worth it. This was quiz number two in the "shifty" quiz series. See you again in the next one!

Source: Author gentlegiant17

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor crisw before going online.
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