Weird trivia questions (with answers)

The facts that sound made up and are not.

The best trivia question is one where the true answer sounds like the joke answer. What is the plastic tip on a shoelace called; how long was the shortest war in history; what did Nintendo sell in 1889.

Every question here has been through the sourcing standard the packs are held to, because a trivia list that is confidently wrong is worse than no list — it gets repeated at a dinner table and nobody checks.

Weird but true

The dot over a lowercase 'i' has a proper name. What is it?: A tittle
What is the collective noun for a group of crows?: A murder
What was the very first item ever sold on eBay?: A broken laser pointer
3M is short for the company's much longer original name. What was it?: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing
What is the (rather unkind) name for the fear of long words?: Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
What do you call a group of flamingos?: A flamboyance
Which letter of the alphabet appears in no US state name at all?: Q
The world's shortest scheduled commercial flight, between two Orkney islands, is timetabled at roughly how long?: About 90 seconds
How many hearts does an octopus have?: Three
What colour is an octopus's blood?: Blue
What is the plastic tip on the end of a shoelace called?: An aglet
What is the space between your eyebrows called?: The glabella
What is the only mammal capable of true, powered flight?: The bat
What do you call a group of jellyfish?: A smack
Which planet in our solar system rotates on its side?: Uranus
What was Google originally called when it launched as a research project?: BackRub
New York's 'Big Apple' nickname came from writing about which sport?: Horse racing
A 'quire' is an old unit of measurement for what?: Paper
What is the medical term for brain freeze?: Sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia
Which country's national flag features a dragon clutching jewels?: Bhutan
What do you call a group of owls?: A parliament
The # symbol has a formal name that isn't 'hash'. What is it?: An octothorpe
What was the very first video uploaded to YouTube about?: A trip to the zoo
What is the little plastic table in the middle of a pizza box actually called?: A pizza saver
What do you call a group of larks?: An exaltation
What is the fear of the number 13 called?: Triskaidekaphobia
Which animal's fingerprints are so close to a human's that they can confuse forensics?: The koala
What was the first toy ever advertised on television?: Mr. Potato Head
The oldest known written recipes, on Babylonian clay tablets held at Yale, are mostly for what?: Stews
What is the metal band that holds the eraser onto a pencil called?: A ferrule
English has an archaic word for the day after tomorrow. What is it?: Overmorrow
What do you call a group of ferrets?: A business
What is the scientific study of hair called?: Trichology
Which is the only bird that can fly backwards for any sustained distance?: The hummingbird
What did Nintendo actually sell when it was founded back in 1889?: Playing cards
Which vegetable was carved into lanterns for Halloween long before pumpkins were?: The turnip
What does the 'Wi' in Wi-Fi officially stand for?: Nothing at all — it is a made-up brand name
What is a single dot on a domino or a die called?: A pip
The shortest war in recorded history lasted roughly how long?: About 38 minutes
What is the dent in the bottom of a wine bottle called?: A punt
What was the tiny extra pocket inside the right pocket of jeans originally designed to hold?: A pocket watch
A 'murmuration' is a group of which bird?: Starlings
Which two letters of the alphabet appear in no chemical element's name?: J and Q
How many bones are there in an adult human body?: 206
What is the hardest naturally occurring substance on Earth?: Diamond
Which gas makes up about 78% of the air we breathe?: Nitrogen
What is the largest organ in the human body?: The skin
How many keys does a standard full-size piano have?: 88
Which is the smallest planet in our solar system?: Mercury
What is the capital city of Australia?: Canberra
How many time zones does Russia span?: 11
What does the word 'laser' actually stand for?: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
What does 'scuba' stand for?: Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus
Which element has the chemical symbol 'W'?: Tungsten
What is the scientific study of earthquakes called?: Seismology
How many sides does a dodecagon have?: 12
Which is the largest desert on Earth?: Antarctica
Which country has more natural lakes than any other?: Canada
Which country was the first to give women the vote in national elections?: New Zealand
What is the longest river in Asia?: The Yangtze
What is the chemical symbol for gold?: Au
In Greek myth, who ignored the warning and flew too close to the sun?: Icarus
What is the name of Saturn's largest moon?: Titan
What does the file format 'GIF' stand for?: Graphics Interchange Format
How many players from each team are on the pitch in a football match?: 11
What is the softest mineral on the Mohs hardness scale?: Talc
At what temperature in Fahrenheit does water freeze?: 32 degrees
Which vitamin does your body make from sunlight?: Vitamin D
What is the largest animal alive on Earth today?: The blue whale
Which country gave the Statue of Liberty to the United States?: France
How many strings does a standard violin have?: Four
What is the deepest known point in any ocean called?: Challenger Deep
What is the process plants use to make food from sunlight?: Photosynthesis
What is the SI unit of force?: The newton
How many degrees do the interior angles of a triangle add up to?: 180
Dry ice is the frozen form of which gas?: Carbon dioxide
Which language has the most native speakers in the world?: Mandarin Chinese
What is the word for something that reads the same forwards and backwards?: A palindrome
What is the largest island in the world?: Greenland
How many minutes are there in a full day?: 1440
What does the 'R' in 'RAM' stand for?: Random
Which metal is a liquid at room temperature?: Mercury
What is the term for an animal that is active at night?: Nocturnal

India edition

What is India's national aquatic animal?: The Ganges river dolphin
What is India's national fruit?: The mango
Train 18 was renamed before it entered service. What is it called now?: The Vande Bharat Express
Which Indian state has the highest literacy rate?: Kerala
The brand name 'Amul' comes from a Sanskrit word meaning what?: Priceless (amulya)
Which film was India's first official entry for the Academy Awards, back in 1957?: Mother India
Which sport is officially India's national game?: None — India has never declared one
In which year was the first Indian Premier League season played?: 2008
Snakes & Ladders began as an ancient Indian game. What was it called?: Moksha Patam
Which Indian state produces the most tea?: Assam
The 'Maruti' in Maruti Suzuki is another name for which god?: Hanuman
How many spokes does the Ashoka Chakra on the Indian flag have?: 24
National Science Day marks a discovery by which Indian scientist?: C. V. Raman
Which 1931 film was India's first talkie?: Alam Ara
Whose 'lost notebook' was rediscovered in a Cambridge library in 1976?: Srinivasa Ramanujan
What is India's national heritage animal?: The Indian elephant
What does the 'PIN' in PIN code stand for?: Postal Index Number
How many languages are listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution?: 22
Which was the first Indian state created on a linguistic basis, in 1953?: Andhra State
In which language was India's national anthem originally written?: Bengali
The rupee symbol ₹ combines the Roman letter R with which Devanagari letter?: र (ra)
How many states does India currently have?: 28
What is India's national bird?: The Indian peacock
What is India's national flower?: The lotus
Which Indian city is known as the Pink City?: Jaipur
Which Indian city is known as the City of Lakes?: Udaipur
Who was independent India's first Prime Minister?: Jawaharlal Nehru
Who wrote the words of India's national anthem?: Rabindranath Tagore
Which Indian was the first to win the Nobel Prize in Literature?: Rabindranath Tagore
What is the highest civilian honour awarded in India?: The Bharat Ratna
Which is the largest Indian state by area?: Rajasthan
Which is the smallest Indian state by area?: Goa
What is the three-letter currency code for the Indian rupee?: INR
Which classical dance form comes from Kerala?: Kathakali
Which Indian state has the longest coastline?: Gujarat
Which city was the capital of British India before Delhi?: Calcutta
Which Indian President was known as the Missile Man?: A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
What does ISRO stand for?: Indian Space Research Organisation
Which Indian mission was the first to land near the Moon's south pole?: Chandrayaan-3
Which Indian state grows the most coffee?: Karnataka
Which river is the longest flowing entirely within India?: The Godavari

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