Before and After
Word Origins
Potent Potables
Common Bonds (What do they all share?)
Lay of the Land
100

ABBA song recorded in honor of the U.K.'s longest-reigning monarch

What is Dancing Queen Elizabeth (II)?

100

This branch of math takes its name from the Arabic for "reuniting broken parts."

What is algebra?

100

This clear spirit distilled from blue agave in Jalisco is the base of a margarita.

What is tequila?

100

A watch, a hurricane, and a needle.

What is an "eye"?

100

Separating Africa from Europe at its narrowest point, this strait connects the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.

What is the Strait of Gibraltar?

200

Paul Blart portrayer takes a ride on a really big piece of fruit

What is Kevin James and the Giant Peach?

200

This salsa's name means "beak of the rooster" in Spanish.

What is pico de gallo?

200

A Manhattan calls for rye or bourbon, bitters, and this fortified wine.

What is (sweet) vermouth?

200

A boxing match, a wedding, and the planet Saturn.

What are rings?

200

The world's saltiest large lake at its shores, this body sits at the lowest land elevation on Earth, about 430 meters below sea level.

What is the Dead Sea?

300

Team rope-pulling contest that becomes a Tolstoy novel

What is Tug of War and Peace?

300

Meaning a tyrant, this word comes from a Roman title for an emergency leader with absolute power.

What is dictator?

300

This herbal French liqueur, made by monks and coming in green and yellow, gives a Last Word its color.

What is Chartreuse?

300

A comb, a piano, and a saw.

What are teeth?

300

This African rift lake is the world's longest freshwater lake and second-deepest.

What is Lake Tanganyika?

400

Walt Whitman poem about a Marvel character known as "The First Avenger

What is O Captain! My Captain! America?

400

From the Italian for "in the fresh air," this word describes a mural painted onto wet plaster, as Michelangelo did on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

What is a fresco?

400

This anise-flavored spirit, nicknamed "the Green Fairy" and once banned for supposedly causing hallucinations, was a favorite of Parisian artists like Toulouse-Lautrec.

What is absinthe?

400

A river, a playing card, and a shirt sleeve.

What is a "cuff"?

400

This deep-sea trench in the western Pacific holds the lowest known point on Earth's surface, the Challenger Deep.

What is the Mariana Trench?

500

A political thriller following Frank Underwood's rise through the ranks at a Georgia-founded restaurant chain known for serving hash browns in styles such as "scattered" or "smothered."

What is Waffle House of Cards?

500

This verb meaning to collectively shun or refuse to deal with someone comes from an Irish land agent whose tenants did exactly that to him in 1880.

What is "to boycott"?

500

This Scandinavian spirit, flavored with caraway or dill and traditionally downed with herring, shares its name with the Latin for "water of life."

What is aquavit?

500

A baseball infield, an engagement ring, and a suit in a deck of cards.

What is a diamond?


500

This Norwegian term describes a deep glacially-carved coastal inlet.

What is a fjord?