Fine Words Ending in "ine" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Repine

This word is composed of the English free morpheme "pine", meaning to yearn of suffer, and the prefix "re", meaning "again". The word literally means suffer again, hence to be discontented.

Answer: Saturnine

This word has the archaic meaning of relating to lead. Here we see for the first time in this quiz the suffix "-ine", meaning qualitatively like/ similar to in nature This word is a middle English one derived from the Old French "saturnin" (of Saturn).

It means "Saturn-like" and so "gloomy". The planet Saturn was named for a god associated with various myths; in one Saturn was supposed to be the god of destruction.

Answer: Acauline

An alternative version of this word is "acaulescent". Both versions include the prefix "a" meaning "without". The word "acauline" hence means "without-stem-like". The word "caul" actually means, by itself, a membrane or a tail, but it also refers to a stem.

Answer: Hyaline

This word comes from the Latin "hyalinus". It can also be used as a noun to denote a smooth sea or glassy sky. "Hyaline" is a physiological term referring to a translucent substance secreted by the decay of connective tissue; "hyaline" means "resembling hyalin", literally, hence actually, "glassy and clear".

Answer: Adulterine

This word can mean illegal, questionable, suspect or illicit; or, of a child, born of an adulterous relationship. It is derived from the old French word "avouterie" (adultery). The word literally denotes "related to adultery" hence, because, yet again, the suffix "-ine" means qualitatively like, relating to or of.

Answer: Alvine

From the Latin "alvus" meaning "belly", this word sounds much cooler than "abdominal". This word is thus directly comparable with words like "feline" and "ovine" as it's composed of a bound noun stem of Latin origins and our own suffix. So "alvine" means "pertaining to the belly". In other words, this word refers to something related to the abdomen!

Answer: Anguine

This is the snake version of the group of words including "canine" and "bovine". The word means "snake-like", literally. This is because the first part of the word comes from the Latin word for snake and the second part is "-ine", a suffix meaning "of a nature similar to".

Answer: Passerine

This stem of this word is the Latin "passer", meaning sparrow, yet this word refers to likeness to any of a very large class of birds. You could describe the song of a nightingale as "passerine", for example. This word means "of the sparrow, or any bird which can perch". So you could call a lark "passerine" without insulting it.

Answer: Cervine

This is yet another word like anguine, with a Latin-derived noun stem. It does not just pertain to deer, but to any member of the Cervidae class which includes muntjacs, elks, chitals and reindeer. The word means "deer-like". You could describe a person as possessing "cervine" eyes.

Answer: Dwine

This has the variant spelling of dwyne, and comes from Old English. It also has the slang meaning (according to the Urban Dictionary) of scoring points in Scrabble by putting a high letter on a letter multiplying square. Yes, "dwine" is a verb meaning to fail, to fall, to peter out and dissolve, pine away, be consumed, waste. One could imagine a hermit or any unloved creature dwining fairly rapidly. Outside Scotland, many English speakers use the word "dwindle" to mean almost exactly the same thing though it is usually insentient things that are said to be dwindling.