Trivia Questions and Answers
One general knowledge question on the card, everyone’s best guess, and the answer one tap away.
- Time
- 15–60 min
- Players
- Two or more people
- Best for
- Game nights, team socials and long dinners
- Deck
- 150 questions in 6 categories
How to use these trivia questions
- Pick a category from the menu under the card, or keep “All categories”.
- Read the question on the top card aloud and let everyone call out or write down an answer.
- Tap “Show answer”, then “Next question”, or swipe the card away, for another. Questions do not repeat until you have seen the whole category.
- Tap the heart to save a question on this device, or tap “Make a 10-question list” to copy questions with their answers.
When to play trivia questions
A trivia question needs one reader and a few people willing to guess, so it works at a crowded table or with just two people over coffee. Because every card carries its answer, nobody has to prepare a quiz in advance or argue about who was right.
A game night at home
Run a few rounds of ten, one category at a time. Geography and Science and space make a good opener, and Words and language turns up surprises like the tittle and the ampersand.
A team social or lunch
Split the table into two teams and read from Inventions and history or Food. Questions like who invented basketball take a minute each and get everyone talking.
Waiting for dinner to arrive
Hand the phone across the table and take turns reading. Animals and nature is quick to play out loud, from baby kangaroos to the color of a polar bear’s skin.
Ways to play with these trivia questions
A quick quiz round at the table
One person holds the phone as quizmaster and reads ten questions from one category. Everyone writes answers on a scrap of paper, then the quizmaster taps “Show answer” for each in turn and players mark their own. Pass the phone on and pick a new category for the next round.
Two teams, alternate turns
Split into two teams. The reader draws a card for one team, which has thirty seconds to agree on a single answer. A right answer scores a point; a miss goes to the other team for a steal. Switch readers each round so everyone gets to play.
Just the two of you
Take turns reading a question to each other, over coffee or on a slow evening at home. Each player picks the category for the other, so a geography fan might be handed Words and language. Keep a tally on a napkin if you like, or simply play until the coffee is gone.
Tips for a good trivia night
- Mix categories through the night. Someone who knows every capital may be lost on pasta shapes, and the Food round is often where a quiet player takes the lead.
- Agree before you start how close is close enough: “the Ural Mountains” and “the Urals” should both count, and so should a spelling that sounds right.
- Put phones face down, apart from the quizmaster’s. A trivia round only works when nobody looks the answer up.
All 150 trivia questions by category
The complete list, grouped by category. The cards above draw from the same list, so you can read ahead here and play there.
Geography
Capitals, rivers, oceans and mountains, from Ottawa and the Seine to Kilimanjaro.
- What is the capital of Canada?Answer: Ottawa
- What is the capital of Australia?Answer: Canberra
- What is the largest ocean on Earth?Answer: the Pacific Ocean
- What is the capital of Japan?Answer: Tokyo
- Which river flows through the middle of Paris?Answer: the Seine
- On which continent is the Sahara Desert?Answer: Africa
- Which U.S. state is made up entirely of islands?Answer: Hawaii
- What is the smallest continent by area?Answer: Australia
Show all 25 in GeographyShow fewer
- Which mountain range is usually taken as the border between Europe and Asia?Answer: the Ural Mountains
- Which South American country is named after the equator?Answer: Ecuador
- What is the capital of Egypt?Answer: Cairo
- Which canal joins the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea?Answer: the Suez Canal
- Which U.S. state is nicknamed the Sunshine State?Answer: Florida
- What is the longest river in South America?Answer: the Amazon
- Which Italian city has canals for streets and gondolas for taxis?Answer: Venice
- Which European country is shaped like a boot?Answer: Italy
- What is the capital of Spain?Answer: Madrid
- Which ocean lies between Africa and Australia?Answer: the Indian Ocean
- Which continent has no countries of its own?Answer: Antarctica
- What is the capital of Kenya?Answer: Nairobi
- Which narrow strait separates Spain from Morocco?Answer: the Strait of Gibraltar
- In which U.S. state is the Grand Canyon?Answer: Arizona
- What is the main language spoken in Brazil?Answer: Portuguese
- What is the capital of Norway?Answer: Oslo
- In which African country is Mount Kilimanjaro?Answer: Tanzania
Science and space
Planets, chemical symbols, the boiling point of water and the first steps on the moon.
- Which planet is known as the Red Planet?Answer: Mars
- What is the chemical symbol for gold?Answer: Au
- Which gas do plants take in from the air to make their food?Answer: carbon dioxide
- Which planet is closest to the sun?Answer: Mercury
- What is the everyday name for H₂O?Answer: water
- What is the largest planet in our solar system?Answer: Jupiter
- Which planet is famous for its wide, bright rings?Answer: Saturn
- What is the center of an atom called?Answer: the nucleus
Show all 25 in Science and spaceShow fewer
- What force pulls a dropped apple to the ground?Answer: gravity
- Which travels faster, light or sound?Answer: light
- At sea level, water boils at how many degrees Fahrenheit?Answer: 212
- What is the chemical symbol for iron?Answer: Fe
- Which gas makes up most of the air we breathe?Answer: nitrogen
- What is the name of the galaxy we live in?Answer: the Milky Way
- Which sparkling gem is made of pure carbon?Answer: diamond
- How many planets are in our solar system?Answer: eight
- What do you call a scientist who studies rocks?Answer: a geologist
- Which color of the rainbow has the longest wavelength?Answer: red
- What is the nearest star to Earth?Answer: the sun
- Which element has the chemical symbol Na?Answer: sodium
- Which planet spins tipped over on its side?Answer: Uranus
- What is melted rock called while it is still underground?Answer: magma
- On which planet is a day longer than a year?Answer: Venus
- What is the science of weather and forecasting called?Answer: meteorology
- Who was the first person to walk on the moon?Answer: Neil Armstrong
Animals and nature
Baby kangaroos, flying mammals, polar bear skin and the trees that drop acorns.
- What is a baby kangaroo called?Answer: a joey
- What is the largest animal known to have ever lived?Answer: the blue whale
- How many legs does a spider have?Answer: eight
- What word describes an animal that is active at night?Answer: nocturnal
- What is a group of lions called?Answer: a pride
- Which bird can fly backward?Answer: the hummingbird
- A caterpillar spins a chrysalis. What comes out of it?Answer: a butterfly
- What is the fastest land animal?Answer: the cheetah
Show all 25 in Animals and natureShow fewer
- What is the only mammal that can truly fly?Answer: the bat
- What do giant pandas eat most of the time?Answer: bamboo
- What is a group of fish swimming together called?Answer: a school
- What are baby frogs called?Answer: tadpoles
- Which animal is nicknamed the ship of the desert?Answer: the camel
- What is the largest land animal alive today?Answer: the African elephant
- What is the tallest animal alive today?Answer: the giraffe
- Which tree do acorns grow on?Answer: the oak
- What do you call an animal that eats only plants?Answer: a herbivore
- Which mammal lays eggs and has a bill like a duck?Answer: the platypus
- Which animal builds dams across streams from sticks and mud?Answer: the beaver
- Under its white fur, what color is a polar bear’s skin?Answer: black
- What is the largest kind of penguin?Answer: the emperor penguin
- What do fish use to breathe underwater?Answer: gills
- Which lizard is famous for changing the color of its skin?Answer: the chameleon
- What do we call the way green plants make food from sunlight?Answer: photosynthesis
- Which living bird lays the biggest eggs?Answer: the ostrich
Food
Where dishes come from and what goes into them, from hummus and pesto to saffron and vanilla.
- Guacamole is mainly made from which fruit?Answer: avocado
- Which nut is ground up to make marzipan?Answer: almonds
- What is the main ingredient in hummus?Answer: chickpeas
- Paella is a rice dish from which country?Answer: Spain
- Tofu is made from which kind of bean?Answer: soybeans
- Which yellow spice gives many curries their golden color?Answer: turmeric
- Raisins are dried versions of which fruit?Answer: grapes
- Pad thai is a noodle dish from which country?Answer: Thailand
Show all 25 in FoodShow fewer
- Popcorn is a type of which grain?Answer: corn
- Which soft white cheese goes with tomato and basil in a Caprese salad?Answer: mozzarella
- Which spice comes from the dried threads of a crocus flower?Answer: saffron
- Which green herb is the star of classic pesto?Answer: basil
- What are dried, smoked jalapeños called?Answer: chipotles
- Kimchi, made from spicy fermented cabbage, comes from which country?Answer: Korea
- Which pasta’s Italian name means “little ears”?Answer: orecchiette
- Which “nut” is really a legume that grows underground?Answer: the peanut
- Which fruit wears its seeds on the outside?Answer: the strawberry
- What tiny living thing makes bread dough rise?Answer: yeast
- Tzatziki is cucumber mixed into which creamy food?Answer: yogurt
- Baba ghanoush is a smoky dip made mainly from which vegetable?Answer: eggplant
- What are thin slices of raw fish served without rice called in Japan?Answer: sashimi
- Chocolate is made from the seeds of which tree?Answer: the cacao tree
- Which small pasta is shaped like grains of rice?Answer: orzo
- Vanilla comes from the pods of which kind of flower?Answer: an orchid
- Gazpacho is a cold Spanish soup made mainly from which vegetable?Answer: tomatoes
Words and language
Borrowed words, Latin abbreviations, odd names for symbols and the grammar terms behind them.
- What do you call a word that means the same as another word?Answer: a synonym
- What do you call the main character of a story?Answer: the protagonist
- What is the last letter of the Greek alphabet?Answer: omega
- What is the plural of “mouse”?Answer: mice
- What does the Latin phrase “et cetera” mean?Answer: and the rest
- Which language gave English the word “safari”?Answer: Swahili
- Which language gave English the word “karaoke”, meaning “empty orchestra”?Answer: Japanese
- What do you call a saying like “break the ice” that doesn’t mean what it literally says?Answer: an idiom
Show all 25 in Words and languageShow fewer
- What does the French greeting “bonjour” mean in English?Answer: good day
- What is the past tense of “swim”?Answer: swam
- What do you call a word made from the first letters of other words, like NASA?Answer: an acronym
- What does the prefix “tri-” mean, as in tricycle or triangle?Answer: three
- What do you call a word that imitates a sound, like “buzz” or “sizzle”?Answer: onomatopoeia
- What is the small dot over a lowercase i or j called?Answer: a tittle
- What is the plural of “cactus” in its classic Latin form?Answer: cacti
- What is the name of the & symbol?Answer: an ampersand
- What does the Spanish word “adiós” mean?Answer: goodbye
- What does the German word “danke” mean?Answer: thank you
- What are words like “pair” and “pear” that sound alike but are spelled differently?Answer: homophones
- What does the “P.S.” at the end of a letter stand for?Answer: postscript
- What Latin words does the abbreviation “a.m.” stand for?Answer: ante meridiem
- Which letter is silent in the word “lamb”?Answer: b
- What French words does “RSVP” on an invitation stand for?Answer: répondez s’il vous plaît
- What does the French phrase “déjà vu” mean word for word?Answer: already seen
- The word “alphabet” comes from the first two letters of which alphabet?Answer: Greek
Inventions and history
Who built, painted or first made it: airplanes, paper, the telegraph, the Eiffel Tower.
- Which two brothers made the first powered airplane flight in 1903?Answer: the Wright brothers
- In which country was paper first made?Answer: China
- Who built the first movable-type printing press in Europe, in the 1400s?Answer: Johannes Gutenberg
- Which city hosted the first modern Olympic Games, in 1896?Answer: Athens
- Who painted the Mona Lisa?Answer: Leonardo da Vinci
- Which American inventor created the phonograph in 1877?Answer: Thomas Edison
- Which country gave the Statue of Liberty to the United States?Answer: France
- The Eiffel Tower was finished for a world’s fair in which year?Answer: 1889
Show all 25 in Inventions and historyShow fewer
- Which civilization built Machu Picchu high in the Andes?Answer: the Inca
- Which scientist came up with the theory of relativity?Answer: Albert Einstein
- Samuel Morse’s famous code was made for sending messages over which invention?Answer: the telegraph
- Which language did the ancient Romans speak?Answer: Latin
- Who wrote the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream?Answer: William Shakespeare
- The watt, a unit of power, is named after which Scottish inventor?Answer: James Watt
- Who invented the game of basketball in 1891?Answer: James Naismith
- Which painter made The Starry Night?Answer: Vincent van Gogh
- What did Galileo use in 1610 to spot the moons of Jupiter?Answer: a telescope
- What did the ancient Romans build to carry fresh water into their cities?Answer: aqueducts
- Burrs stuck to his dog gave George de Mestral the idea for which fastener?Answer: the hook-and-loop fastener
- Engineer Percy Spencer invented which kitchen appliance in the 1940s?Answer: the microwave oven
- Ancient Egyptians wrote on sheets made from which river reed?Answer: papyrus
- The Penny Black, the first postage stamp, came from which country in 1840?Answer: Britain
- What did the Lumière brothers show to a paying audience in Paris in 1895?Answer: films
- What is the nickname of the great bell in London’s Elizabeth Tower?Answer: Big Ben
- Which scientist set out the three laws of motion in 1687?Answer: Isaac Newton
Frequently asked questions
How many trivia questions are there?
There are 150 trivia questions, 25 in each of six categories: geography, science and space, animals and nature, food, words and language, and inventions and history. Every question has a short answer, shown on the card when you tap “Show answer” and printed under it in the list on this page.
Are these general knowledge questions easy or hard?
They run from easy to medium. Each category mixes questions most adults can answer, like the capital of Japan or the Red Planet, with harder ones, like the name of the dot over a lowercase i or the planet whose day is longer than its year. Every answer is a settled fact, not a record that might change.
How do you host a trivia night with friends or coworkers?
Pick one quizmaster with the phone, split everyone into small teams and give each team paper and a pen. Play three or four rounds of ten questions from different categories, read each answer after the round, and keep score on one sheet everyone can see.
What should we play after trivia?
Try brain teasers for puzzles that need thinking more than knowing, or riddles for classic guessing with an answer on every card. For a holiday party, Christmas trivia gives the same kind of quiz a seasonal theme.