Growing the Word Cat's Tail Trivia Quiz

Answer: cater

Beyond its common use as a verb, "cater", in this case derived from the Latin "quattuor" meaning the number four, also refers to the four-pip card or the equivalent face of a die. Remember this when you next time meld a quartet of fours in rummy. Cates (related to "cater" in the meaning of providing food) are meats and other foods, usually in the sense of delicious and luxurious food. "Catty" is not an adjective referring to the feline species, but a weight used in East India, equivalent to four thirds of a pound.

Answer: cation

A cation is any positively charged atom or molecule. The term is derived from "cathode ion" - in electrolysis, positively charged substances are attracted to the negatively charged electrode. All of the others are edible in one way or another.

Answer: catarrh

Most often encountered as the bronchial variant (a frequent reason for a nasty cough), a catarrh can be the inflammation of any mucous tissue including the bladder or colon. A catling is just a kitten, catalpa is a flowering tree also known as the Indian bean and a cateran was a militia member or robber, in particular in Scotland.

Answer: catacomb

Famously, the Paris catacombs extend for several kilometers underground and are filled with the bones of about six million deceased. A cataract can be a type of waterfall or an affliction of the cornea of the eye, causing gradual loss of vision. A cattleya is an orchid named for botanist William Cattley and a catapult is a historical artillery weapon similar to a ballista or a gargantuan crossbow.

Answer: catamaran

A catamaran is a two-hulled boat or ship, quite often a sailing ship. Many of the world's fastest sporting yachts are catamarans. Catharsis is the process of ridding oneself of an emotion by releasing it, a catechism is a summary of doctrine, often religious and typically written in question and answer format. The adjective "catoptric" refers to something reflected or mirrored.

By the way, six-letter tails are the most frequent ones in the word list I used with 74 occurrences.

Answer: catholicon

As an alternative word for a panacea - a substance or medicine capable of curing any disease - a catholicon has nothing to do with the Roman Catholic faith. "Cathedrals" has no uncommon secondary meaning - it is simply the plural form of the word referring to a diocesal church. "Catalectic" is an adjective implying a lack of completion, specifically used in linguistics to refer to a word missing its final syllable.

A cataphora is also a linguistic term meaning a stylistic pattern in which a pronoun is used before the corresponding noun. (Example: "Before he went to sleep, the cat once more checked his food bowl.")

Answer: catercorner

While the etymology of this word is not exactly known (it could be similar to the origin of the playing card term "cater" to mean "fourth corner" or derived from Scandinavian "cater" meaning "crooked"), the word refers to the far diagonal corner, typically of a building or square. A caterpillar is of course a butterfly larva and a cat that caterwauled simply meowed in search of a mate.

Answer: cataphoresis

Cataphoresis is an alternate term for electrophoresis, a process in which chemical substances are fractionated by applying an electric field to a gel. Depending on their charge and structure, substances move in different directions and at different speeds. Catholicoses (a plural word) are ranking patriarchs in the Orthodox church and catachrestic (or catachrestical) is a rather eloquent way of saying "far-fetched".

Answer: catatonically

A catatonic state is characterized by a complete lack of voluntary motion without complete unconsciousness. It can occur in any duration from just a few minutes to many days. "Catabolically" is derived from "catabolism", a term for a type of biochemical reaction in which materials are broken down for energy.

The most frequently encountered such process is the one that converts glucose and oxygen to carbon dioxide, water and energy.

Answer: catecholamines

Catecholamines include many important hormones, the two most well-known of which are dopamine and epinephrine. Chemically, they are aromatic amines. Catastrophisms and catastrophists both refer to a theory implying that geological changes mostly occurred in massive events instead of a more gradual change (uniformism). Catechizations are acts of adding new entries to a catechism.