Words - Things You Knew You Were Afraid to Ask! Quiz

Answer: Orange, Silver

According to "English Oxford Living Dictionaries" there is only one word in the "Oxford English Dictionary" that rhymes with orange and one that rhymes with silver. The word orange only rhymes with "sporange", which is part of a fern. Silver only rhymes with "chilver", which is a female lamb. The Oxford Rhyming Dictionary does show both these words as having a half rhyme (also known as 'imperfect rhyme' or 'near rhyme').

The difference between a perfect rhyme and a near rhyme (orange-lozenge and silver-salver are both examples of near rhymes) is quite simple. A perfect rhyme (also known as a 'full rhyme' or 'true rhyme') such as smitten/written depends on the last stressed vowel, in this case the 'i', and all the sounds following it; they make up the rhyming element. A half rhyme such as orange and lozenge is a rhyme where the stressed vowel sounds, in this case 'a' and 'e', do not match. This can also be described as assonance.

Answer: Both

According to www.askoxford.com: "It means both! But in the publishing industry, it is used fairly consistently to mean 'every two months'. The same ambiguity affects biweekly and biyearly. If you want to be absolutely clear, use a phrase such as 'twice a week' or 'every two years".

Answer: No

According to www.askoxford.com: "No, though it would be very useful. In fact nephew used to be used regardless of sex, but this usage is long extinct. Older use of the word cousin for a range of blood relations would have encompassed nephews and nieces, but no specific term is now available".

With its origins in Old and Middle English, 'sibling' is described by www.dictionary.com as: "One of two or more individuals having one or both parents in common; a brother or sister".

Answer: All of these choices

According to www.askoxford.com: "The word demi-vegetarian appears in our file with the sense 'a person who eats fish but not meat', though people so described may include those who eat poultry. The word pesco-vegetarian is sometimes seen, and pescatarian. The simplest option is probably non-meat-eater!".

Answer: There is no word

There is no word that follows. According to www.askoxford.com: "These three are the only words of their type, and no further terms in the series have ever existed (the suggestion of 'quince' for 'five times' is picturesque but no more!). Presumably the language has not felt the lack of them".

Answer: Homograph

According to www.askoxford.com: "Homographs cover words spelt in the same way but of different meaning or origins (e.g. pole = piece of wood or metal and pole as in North Pole, as well as words of identical spelling but different pronunciation (e.g. lead noun and lead verb)".

It is acknowledged that the distinction between a homophone and a homograph can sometimes be blurred to the point where a word can be both! The same website lists a homophone as: "each of two or more words having the same pronunciation but different meanings, origins, or spelling (e.g. new and knew).

Therefore, it is possible for "father" and "farther" to be pronounced identically, or not. It all depends on the regional pronunciation of the word. A further example would be "colonel" and "kernel".

Answer: Two words that mean the opposite of each other are placed together

According to www.askoxford.com: Oxymoron: "A word of Greek origins formed from words meaning sharp and dull meaning "a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction": e.g. a cheerful pessimist; harmonius discord'. (R.W. Burchfield, The New Fowler's Modern English Usage)".

Answer: Split infinitive

According to www.askoxford.com: "This is a split infinitive:

'To boldly go where no man has gone before'

The infinitive is "to go", and it has been 'split' by the adverb boldly. Split infinitives have been the cause of much controversy among teachers and grammarians, but the notion that they are ungrammatical is simply a myth: in his famous book Modern English Usage, Henry Fowler listed them among 'superstitions'!

Split infinitives are frequently poor style, but they are not strictly bad grammar. In the example above, to avoid the split infinitive would result either in weakness (to go boldly) or over-formality (boldly to go): either would ruin the rhythmic force and rhetorical pattern of the original. It is probably good practice to avoid split infinitives in formal writing, but clumsy attempts to avoid them simply by shuffling adverbs about can create far worse sentences".

(Or you could avoid that one altogether by turning Star Trek off, and watching the Twlight Zone instead!)

Answer: Denary

After tertiary: According to www.askoxford.com: "The sequence continues with quaternary, quinary, senary, septenary, octonary, nonary, denary. Words also exist for `twelfth order' (duodenary) and `twentieth order' (vigenary)".

Answer: Both are correct

According to www.askoxford.com: "The form an for the indefinite article is used before a spoken vowel sound, regardless of how the written word is spelt. If you say 'an otel' when speaking (which is now often regarded as distinctly old-fashioned), then it may be appropriate for you to write 'an hotel'; but most people say 'hotel' with a sounded 'h', and should write 'a hotel'.


By contrast, words such as 'honour', 'heir' or 'hour' in which the 'h' sound is dropped are written with 'an'. Americans who drop the 'h' in 'herb' may also prefer to write 'an herb', but in standard British pronunciation the 'h' is sounded, and 'a herb' is therefore correct in writing. Because 'European' is said with an initial 'y' sound, which counts as a consonantal sound in English speech, it is said (and written) with 'a' not 'an'. An abbreviation such as M.P., which is pronounced em pea, begins with a spoken vowel, and so it is 'an M.P.".

Author's note: Hallejujah! Now if we could only convince newsreaders, who all say things like "An horrific crash"...