Language trivia

Language is Twivial's word-nerd category. Questions cover the names of grammar and rhetoric terms (simile, oxymoron, onomatopoeia), English word origins, alphabets and writing systems, and everyday words in other languages, mainly greetings and thank-yous.

The terms that come up most

A small set of terms covers a lot of questions. A synonym means the same; an antonym means the opposite. Homophones sound alike (pair and pear). A simile compares with "like" or "as"; a metaphor says one thing is another. Alliteration repeats first sounds; onomatopoeia imitates a sound. An anagram rearranges letters, a palindrome reads the same backward, and a portmanteau blends two words, like brunch.

What we leave out

We don't ask about slang, new dictionary entries or "word of the year" picks, which date quickly. Where English has two accepted forms, such as cacti and cactuses, we don't ask at all. Questions about other languages stick to words a traveler would meet, so you don't need to speak them.

How to get better at it

Etymology questions are often solvable from the word itself. Kindergarten looks German because it is (children's garden). Tsunami comes from Japanese, meaning harbor wave. When a question asks where a word comes from, the spelling is usually the best clue on the screen.