Pop Culture
This master of suspense made a brief, silent cameo appearance in 39 of his own psychological thriller films.
Alfred Hitchcock
This city is the highest-altitude capital in the world, sitting over 11,900 feet above sea level.
La Paz (Bolivia)
This is a proposed, testable explanation for a scientific phenomenon, often framed as an "If, then" statement.
hypothesis
This linguistic blend forms a new word by fusing two existing words, such as "brunch" or "motel."
portmanteau
This sky god wielded thunderbolts and ruled as the supreme king of Mount Olympus in Greek myth.
Zeus
This 2024 viral pop anthem by Sabrina Carpenter spent multiple weeks at number one, asking listeners to "please, please, please" not prove her wrong.
"Please Please Please"
This major river basin flows through nine South American countries and contains over half of the planet's remaining rainforests.
Amazon River
This term refers to any variable that an experimenter purposefully keeps identical across all testing groups.
control variable (or constant)
This type of word is derived directly from the name of a real or mythical person, such as "boycott" or "silhouette."
eponym
This legendary weapon, forged by dwarves, always returned to Thor's hand after being thrown.
Mjölnir
This dystopian sci-fi drama about a lethal survival tournament became Netflix’s most-watched series of all time upon release.
Squid Game
This vast, arid region covers most of Northern Africa and is roughly the same size as the entire United States.
Sahara Desert
This specific variable is the one being measured, observed, or recorded by the scientist during an experiment.
dependent variable
This abbreviation is formed from the initial letters of a phrase and is pronounced as a single continuous word, like "NASA."
acronym
This deity was the ancient Egyptian god of the sun, often depicted with a hawk's head topped by a solar disk.
Ra
This actress achieved EGOT status in 2024 after winning an Emmy for her performance in The Bear.
Liza Colón-Zayas
This active stratovolcano is the highest mountain in Africa and the tallest free-standing mountain in the world.
Mount Kilimanjaro
This is the single factor that a scientist deliberately changes or manipulates between experimental groups.
independent variable
This common phrase, meaning to face a difficult situation with courage, originates from British soldiers biting down on lead ammunition during surgery.
"bite the bullet"
This Roman god of the sea and earthquakes served as the direct counterpart to the Greek god Poseidon.
Neptune
This 1999 satirical cult classic film stars Ron Livingston as an IT worker who decides to completely stop working at Initech.
Office Space
Comprising over 17,000 islands, this Southeast Asian country is the world's largest archipelagic state.
Indonesia
This rigorous process involves independent experts in the same field evaluating a study's validity before it gets published.
peer review
This term describes a word adopted into English from another language without any translation, like "bazaar" or "kindergarten."
loanword
This "Feathered Serpent" deity was widely worshipped across Mesoamerica as the god of wind, air, and learning.
Quetzalcoatl