Great general knowledge quiz questions and answers

100 Great General Knowledge Quiz Questions and Answers

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Perhaps you’re not in the mood for a niche bout of quizzing fodder and, instead, just want a whole smorgasbord of smashing trivia questions that stretch across different categories? If that’s your speed, we’ve got the perfect quiz guide for you: 100 of the best general knowledge questions and answers!

Whether you’re doing this sensational quiz solo or getting all your friends and family around for an epic quiz night, we’ve put together ten rounds covering everything from riddles to renowned movies.

General Knowledge Opening Questions and Answers

From the period table to the Pope, this really general knowledge round aims to cover a lot of ground. Really the ideal way to kick off your quiz night with ten easy general knowledge questions!

  1. At the beginning of the 17th century, what did Pope Clement VIII declare to be ‘the devil’s drink’?
  2. The Scandinavian word ‘Blåtand’ was given to a 10th century Danish King who brought together disagreeing tribes to resolve their issues. Which modern technology, which brings devices together, is named from the Anglicized version of ‘Blåtand’?
  3. What is it about a rat’s constitution that makes them particularly susceptible to poison?
  4. What is the lowest form of wit?
  5. What does BCC stand for when sending an email?
  6. Who was the successor of Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa?
  7. On what in New York did James’ giant peach land?
  8. Where did Charles Darwin take the place of Charles Dickens?
  9. Which mythological creature is found on the Vauxhall Motors logo?
  10. Of which chemical element does a diamond consist?

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General Knowledge Opening Quiz Answers

  1. Coffee
  2. Bluetooth
  3. They cannot vomit
  4. Sarcasm
  5. Blind carbon copy
  6. Thabo Mbeki
  7. The spike of the Empire State Building
  8. On a British ten pound note
  9. Griffin
  10. Carbon

Did you know? ‘Blåtand’ was the epithet of King Harald ‘Bluetooth’ who united dissonant Danish tribes into a single kingdom. The implication being that Bluetooth unites communication protocols. The makers agreed to make the short-link technology an open industry standard.

A Motley Bunch of Screen Quiz Questions and Answers

Covering all types of popular culture this second round looks at the silver screen, the small screen and even supermodels. Let’s dive right in…

  1. Which famous television cook has a stake in Norwich City?
  2. What Abba-inspired name did Alan Partridge call his son?
  3. Which British version of the TV show known in some countries as the ‘Lion’s Arena’, ‘Shark Tank’, or ‘Money Tigers’?
  4. What nationality was Joan of Arc?
  5. What was the registration plate on Lady Penelope’s pink car in `Thunderbirds`?
  6. Which of the seven dwarfs is the only one that never speaks?
  7. What links Home Alone and Succession’s Roman Roy?
  8. Featured in Looney Tunes, what is fiction’s second biggest company according to a 2007 Forbes Magazine?
  9. Who was the first American actor to be nominated for Emmy Awards for portraying the same character on 3 different shows?
  10. Which supermodel is called ‘The Body’?

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A Motley Bunch of Quiz Answers

  1. Delia Smith
  2. Fernando
  3. Dragons’ Den
  4. French
  5. FAB 1
  6. Dopey
  7. Culkin, Macaulay played and brother Kieran played Roman
  8. The Acme Corporation. The universe’s largest purveyor of anvils, earthquake pills and jet-propelled pogo sticks’ it hypothetically had sales of $348.7 billion in 2007.
  9. Kelsey Grammer (Cheers, Frasier and Wings)
  10. Elle Mcpherson

For who’s sake? Quiz Questions and Answers

Now eagle-eyed entrants in this quiz should be able to find the golden thread in all these quizzing questions. Let’s just say it’s got something to do with a Sellers, a Gabriel and Winnie the Pooh!

  1. In 1936, Sergei Prokofiev wrote a musical composition with which an orchestra illustrates a narrator telling which children’s story?
  2. Which city was known as Leningrad between 1924 and 1991?
  3. Which actor played the infamous political antihero who had lines such as “Please could you take this note, ram it up his hairy inbox and pin it to his f*@king prostate.” and “Feet off the furniture you Oxbridge tw@t, you’re not on a punt now.”?
  4. Who scored a single goal for England in the 1966 World Cup Final?
  5. Who picked a peck of pickled peppers?
  6. Which England cricketer was player of the tournament in the 2010 T20 World Cup?
  7. Appearing in the book The Little White Bird, or Adventures in Kensington Gardens, which character later became the subject of other books and numerous films, including a 1953 Disney movie?
  8. What malleable metal alloy, comprised mainly of tin, was used from the ancient Egyptian period to the middle ages for decorative metal items and tableware?
  9. Which composer of Swan Lake During was so affected by stage fight that, in his guest conductor appearances, he was known to hold his hand on his head through fear it would become detached from his body?
  10. What name is given to the management concept that an employee moves up as organisation until they reach a level of incompetence?

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For who’s sake Quiz Answers

  1. Peter and the Wolf
  2. St Petersberg. Prior to 1924, having founded by Tsar Peter the Great in 1703, it was known as Petrograd.
  3. Peter Capaldi, playing Malcolm Tucker in In the Thick of It.
  4. Martin Peters
  5. Peter Piper
  6. Kevin Pietersen
  7. Peter Pan
  8. Pewter
  9. Pyotr (Peter) Tchaikovsky
  10. The Peter Principle, developed by Laurence J. Peter in 1969

Miscellaneous Quiz Questions and Answers

From wombat poop to Dom Perignon, this round of general knowledge questions covers some of our favourite weird and wonderful quiz questions. Let’s see how you and your contestants do.

  1. What superseded Coca-Cola as the best known brand name in the world in 1996?
  2. February is the shortest month in the year, but which is the longest?
  3. In Friends, how many divorces did Ross?
  4. It is ‘kisstomary to cuss the bride’ and ‘The Lord is a shoving leopard’ are examples of what?
  5. What shape poop does a wombat create?
  6. How many different scoring areas are there on a dartboard?
  7. Which US president shares his name with synonym for ‘ruff’ in the game of bridge?
  8. Which part of the human body has the thinnest skin?
  9. Dom Perignon was the first person to put what in a bottle?
  10. Which fictional character was born on 31st July, 1981?

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Miscellaneous Quiz Answers

  1. McDonalds
  2. October (UK) and November (US), because the clocks go back
  3. Three (Carol, Emily, Rachel)
  4. Spoonerisms
  5. Cuboid. It creates about eight cubes a day
  6. 82
  7. Trump
  8. The eyelids
  9. A cork
  10. Harry Potter

Did you know? A (satirical) study found that a higher proportion of Notrump contracts (20%) were played in the 2015 Vanderbilt tournament compared to the 1999 tournament (12.5%) and claimed that US bridge players had been unconsciously affected by Trump’s president that they became “subtly deranged”.

All and Pundry Quiz Questions and Answers

Who doesn’t love an opportunity to combine two loves: a penchant for puns and a quota of quizzing?! In this fifth round of our general knowledge quiz we fuse them both to create this: our very ‘punny’ round of quiz questions!

  1. Which word, often used to describe a smell, comes from the Latin to be sharply painful?
  2. Also prominent in the music industry, which lady is the godmother of both Elton John’s sons?
  3. What amazing name was given to baby girls more than any other in England and Wales in 2007?
  4. Which actor, who is a huge 6’2″, plays an X-Men character who in the comics is only 5′ 3″?
  5. The Emperor’s New Clothes and The Little Mermaid were written at the ‘hans’ of which prolific author?
  6. Which Nobel Prize winner discovered that radium could cure cancer?
  7. Who named his daughter Olympia Lightning?
  8. Jimmy Page meeting Robert Plant led to the formation of which rock band?
  9. According to the Forbes 2010 list of the richest fictional people, which ten year old film character was at third?
  10. Aptly, where is the one place in Great Britain that the Queen cannot visit?

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All and Pundry Quiz Answers

  1. Pungent, from the Latin pungere
  2. Lady Gaga
  3. Grace
  4. Hugh Jackman, playing Wolverine
  5. Hans Christian Andersen
  6. Marie Curie
  7. Usain Bolt
  8. Led Zeppelin
  9. Richie Rich
  10. House of Commons

List Lovers Quiz Questions and Answers

Do you like sequences? A big fan of listicles? Then this round will deliver in droves! Essentially every entry ends with the question: ‘What comes next’?

  1. James is five. Henry is three. Edward is two. Who is one?
  2. Which number comes next: 3, 3, 5, 4, 4, 3, 5, 5, 4, _ ?
  3. Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, … ?
  4. What completes this list? Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Holyrood Palace, Sandringham, ……
  5. How about: Charlie, Mike, Oscar, Romeo,…..?
  6. What is next:  Sun, Mon, Tues, Wednes, Thurs, Fri, … ?
  7. I, V, X, L, C, ….?
  8. What links the words ‘swims’, ‘dollop’, ‘suns’ and ‘pod’?
  9. What comes next: Z, X, C, V, B, N, ….?
  10. Partridge, turtle doves, French hens, calling birds, gold rings, … ?

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List Lovers Quiz Answers

  1. Thomas the Tank Engine (engine numbers)
  2. 3 (number of letters in 1 to 10)
  3. Epsilon
  4. Balmoral Castle (Official or private residences of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh)
  5. Victor (boys’ names in the NATO phonetic alphabet)
  6. Satur
  7. D. Which is Roman numeral for 500.
  8. They are rotational ambigrams – they read the same when rotated through 180 degrees.
  9. M (bottom row of the keyboard)
  10. Geese. There were six of them a-laying in the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’

Riddle Me This Quiz Questions and Answers

Keen on conundrums? Punting for a puzzle? In this round we try a different type of general knowledge approach: riddles! Each of the ten questions poses a brainteaser to decipher and – be warned – some of them are a little tricky!

  1. What month of the year has 28 days?
  2. What is tall when it’s young and short when it’s old?
  3. What has a head and a tail yet no body?
  4. You walk into a room that contains a match, a candle, a kerosene lamp, and a fireplace. What should you light first?
  5. What city is 3/7 chicken, 2/3 cat and 2/4 goat?
  6. What has one eye, but is unable to see?
  7. What is full of holes yet still holds water?
  8. What can you break, even if you can’t pick it up or touch it?
  9. What invention allows you to you look right through a wall?
  10. The more of this there is, the less you see. What is it?

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Riddle me This Quiz Answers

  1. All of them
  2. A candle
  3. A coin
  4. The match
  5. Chicago
  6. A needle
  7. A sponge
  8. A promise
  9. A window
  10. Darkness

Heterogeneous Quiz Questions and Answers

It’s diverse, it’s manifold, it’s assorted. Yup, this heterogeneous round of quiz questions aims to cover a whole lotta ground.

  1. Which diarist lived at 263 Prinsengracht, Amsterdam?
  2. A portmanteau of which three words were used to give Durex condoms their name?
  3. In 2019, who was named by Forbes as the youngest “self-made billionaire ever”?
  4. Which ubiquitous household object gets its name from the Latin word meaning ‘admire’ or ‘to wonder at’?
  5. What is notable about the word ‘almost’?
  6. And what is notable about the word ‘uncopyrightable’?
  7. Which Cook arranged his first ‘excursion’ in 1841, taking five hundred people on a tarin to Loughborough?
  8. Does the Statue Of Liberty hold a torch in her right or left hand?
  9. In basketball, what is the onomatopoeic name given to a perfect shot that hits nothing but net? 
  10. Complete this famous Ernest Hemmingway six word story: ‘For sale, baby shoes, ……’.
Question and answers for quiz - basketball

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Heterogeneous Quiz Answers

  1. Anne Frank
  2. Durability, Reliability and Excellence
  3. Kylie Jenner
  4. Mirror
  5. It is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.
  6. It is the longest word in the English language to contain no repeated letters.
  7. Thomas Cook
  8. Right
  9. Swish
  10. Never worn

Homophone Quiz Questions and Answers

Okay now for something a little different. This round is all about homophones; those words that have the same pronunciation but have different meanings. For example, the question ‘When pencils and pens don’t move, would have the answer ‘stationery and stationary’. Got it? Good!

  1. When the head teacher makes a moral stand.
  2. When something extremely good becomes rather annoying.
  3. When someone speaks by divine inspiration to make financial gains.
  4. When an understanding of something provokes violence.
  5. When someone gives advice to a group of politicians.
  6. When someone reads of three linked murders spread over thirty days while eating their breakfast.
  7. When those in a doctor’s waiting room genially wait a long time for their appointment.
  8. When unlawful means are used to obtain information.
  9. When one goes into labour on a bed on a train.
  10. When games such as Monopoly and Scrabble become rather tedious.

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Homophone Quiz Answers

  1. Principal/principle
  2. Great/grate
  3. Prophet/profit
  4. Insight/incite
  5. Counsel/council
  6. Serial/cereal
  7. Patients/patience
  8. Illicit/elicit
  9. Berth/birth
  10. Board/bored

Licorice Allsorts Quiz Questions and Answers

While the headline might suggest this last round might suggest it’s all about sweets, it’s simply a ‘catch all’ round full of our absolute favourite facts to round off your quiz night. Let’s see how you fare in the final round.

  1. In 1916 which American become the world`s first billionaire?
  2. Registered at 118.1 decibels, for what did Paul Hunn set a world record?
  3. What name did George Foreman give to all five of his sons?
  4. Why is white chocolate not actually chocolate?
  5. Which product derived its name from the French for ‘velvet hook?
  6. What is the name of a ?! (i.e. a question mark followed by an exclamation mark)?
  7. If the mother of a liger is a tiger, then what is its father?
  8. What is the only fruit whose seeds grow on the outside?
  9. In 1956, which American became Princess of Monaco?
  10. What phrase meaning ‘disdain for something one wants but cannot have’ comes from a story about a fox being unable to reach some fruit in a tree?
Quiz questions games - licorice allsorts

What about a toys and board games quiz?

Licorice Allsorts Quiz Answers

  1. John D Rockefeller
  2. Loudest burp
  3. George
  4. It doesn’t contain any cocoa
  5. Velcro
  6. An interrobang
  7. Lion
  8. Strawberry
  9. Grace Kelly
  10. Sour grapes

Sweet fact: In 1899, Charlie Thompson, one of Bassett’s sales representatives, dropped a tray of samples on the floor creating a muddle of sweets which would unknowingly become the Licorice Allsorts we know today.

What did you think of our general knowledge quiz? Did you (or your participants) learn something new? Let us know what you thought, or if we’ve got something wrong by dropping us a comment below!

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