Word Roots & Origins
From the Latin aqua, this term describes a large tank of water where fish and underwater plants are kept.
What is Aquarium?
If you are running a race and you pass the person in second place, you are now in this position.
What is Second Place?
This scale, ranging from 1 to 10, is used to measure the hardness of minerals, with diamond being a 10.
What is Mohs Scale?
"The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky" is an example of this, giving human traits to non-human things.
What is Personification?
This "Land of the Rising Sun" is an archipelago nation located in the Pacific Ocean.
What is Japan?
This Greek root meaning "life" is found in words like "autobiography" and "symbiosis."
What is Bio?
This type of reasoning, common in math, starts with a general rule and moves to a specific conclusion.
What is Deductive Reasoning?
This is the name for the "supercontinent" that existed 200 million years ago before breaking apart.
What is Pangea?
A poem consisting of 14 lines, usually written in iambic pentameter, is known by this name.
What is a Sonnet?
This is the only continent on Earth that contains no desert regions.
What is Europe?
If a person is "ambidextrous," they can use both hands equally well; the prefix ambi- means this.
What is Both?
David’s father has three sons: Snap, Crackle, and this third son.
What is David?
Found in the stratosphere, this layer of gas protects Earth by absorbing most of the sun's harmful UV radiation.
What is the Ozone Layer?
This is the term for a word that phonetically mimics the sound it describes, such as "buzz" or "hiss."
What is Onomatopoeia?
Though it is the largest island in the world, it is officially a territory of Denmark rather than its own continent.
What is Greenland?
From the Greek chronos, this type of clock or watch is used for measuring time with extreme accuracy.
What is chronometer?
In a standard deck of cards, this is the only King who is shown without a mustache.
What is the King of Hearts (The "Suicide King")?
These are the two primary elements that make up the Earth's inner and outer core.
What are Iron and Nickel?
In a story, this is the term for the "hero's flaw" or a fatal mistake that leads to their downfall.
What is Hamartia (or Tragic Flaw)?
This line of latitude at 0o divides the Earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
What is The Equator?
This French term for "dead-end" is often used to describe a situation where no further progress is possible.
What is Cul-de-sac?
This logical fallacy occurs when someone attacks the person making an argument rather than the argument itself.
What is Ad Hominem?
This geological process occurs when one tectonic plate sinks beneath another into the mantle.
What is Subduction?
This literary technique uses a concrete object to represent an abstract idea, like a dove representing peace.
What is Symbolism?
This city is the only one in the world located on two different continents: Europe and Asia.
What is Istanbul?