GrammarPhile Blog

Did You Ace Our Spelling Quiz?

Posted by Sara Richmond   Feb 15, 2024 9:15:00 AM

 

(Most People Couldn’t)

If you took our most recent spelling quiz and were disappointed with your score or confused by the answers, this post is for you.

Keep reading for a full breakdown of the right answers, the wrong answers, and definitions/examples of both.

 

A Breakdown of the Spelling Quiz That Tripped Up a Bunch of Smart Professionals

  1. Anchors away/aweigh, my boys!

WRONG – away: The captain isn’t telling sailors to put the anchor in their pocket.

✔️RIGHT – aweigh: To “weigh anchor” means to lift an anchor in preparation for sailing (and in doing so, you find out how much the anchor weighs, hence the saying). In other words, “Let’s go!”

  1. She has a flair/flare for impressing juries.

WRONG – flare: That thing you light when your ship is headed to Davey Jones’ locker or your car is disabled. Please don’t use them in court.

              ✔️  RIGHT – flair: A unique talent or style.

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Topics: word quiz, vocabulary quiz

Can You Ace This Spelling Quiz? Part 3

Posted by Phil Jamieson   Feb 1, 2024 8:00:00 AM

(Most People Can’t)

This is part 3 of a spelling quiz we recently posed to a group of highly educated legal marketing and business development professionals at an annual conference. They were sure they could ace our questions—after all, communication is the foundation of their businesses.

Guess what?

Many of them made mistakes! In fact, many of them made the same mistakes! They were astounded.

So here’s our challenge: See if you can do better. Then tell us about it in the comments.

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Topics: word quiz, vocabulary quiz

Cookie Day

Posted by Julie Holzmann   Dec 7, 2023 8:00:00 AM

 

December 4 was National Cookie Day. Did you miss it? Well, even if you did, let's celebrate anyway. We love a party, especially when sweets are included. How well do you know your cookies? Many of these are traditional Christmas treats. Take our quiz and test your knowledge. 

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Topics: vocabulary test, vocabulary quiz

Wide-Ranging Events

Posted by Phil Jamieson   Nov 2, 2023 8:00:00 AM

On this day in 1976, Jimmy Carter was elected 39th president of the United States. In 1947, Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose flew for the first … and last … time. In 1929, Richard Taylor, Nobel Prize-winning physicist who proved the existence of quarks, was born. In 1889, North Dakota was made the 39th state, and South Dakota was made the 40th state. And in 1570, a tidal wave in the North Sea destroyed the sea walls from Holland to Jutland. More than 1,000 people were killed. Do you have what it takes to rise to fame and fortune on your intellect alone? Or are you strictly a flatlander unable to rise to any level of importance in this age of ineloquence? Take our test and find out!

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Topics: vocabulary test, vocabulary quiz

Can You Ace This Spelling Quiz? Part 2

Posted by Sara Richmond   Sep 14, 2023 8:00:00 AM

(Most People Can't)

This is part 2 of a spelling quiz we recently posed to a group of highly educated legal marketing and business development professionals at an annual conference. They were sure they could ace our questions—communication is the foundation of their businesses.

Guess what?

Most of them made mistakes! In fact, many of them made the same mistakes! They were gobsmacked.

Read More

Topics: word quiz, vocabulary quiz

Did You Ace Our Spelling Quiz?

Posted by Sara Richmond   Jul 13, 2023 7:00:00 AM

 

                    (Most People Couldn’t)

 

If you took our most recent spelling quiz and were disappointed with your score or confused by the answers, this post is for you.

Keep reading for a full breakdown of the right answers, the wrong answers, and definitions of both.

 

 

A Breakdown of The Spelling Quiz That Tripped Up a Bunch of Smart Professionals

1. The facts involved a study in plain/plane geometry.

WRONG – plain: Not decorated, obvious, boring, or ordinary. (We won’t argue that geometry is boring to some people, but that’s not the intended meaning here.)

✔️  RIGHT – plane: “A flat level or surface” in this case. In other words: the study of 2D shapes.

2. He spoke pidgin/pigeon English when he had to.

WRONG – pigeon: It’s feathered, gray-ish, and poops all over buildings and park benches. But pigeons don’t speak an official language.

✔️RIGHT – pidgin: A simplified speech that allows people speaking different languages to communicate. The word originated from a Chinese corruption of the word “business.” A “creole” is a complete pidgin language, such as Haitian Creole, Gullah, and Jamaican Creole, passed down to the children of adult pidgin speakers, thereby becoming a native language.

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Topics: word quiz, vocabulary quiz

Can You Ace This Spelling Quiz?

Posted by Phil Jamieson   Jun 22, 2023 8:00:00 AM

(Most People Can't)

 

We recently posed this spelling quiz to a group of highly educated legal marketing and business development professionals at an annual conference. They were sure they could ace our questions—communication is the foundation of their businesses.

The surprising results?

Many of them made mistakes! In fact, many of them made the same mistakes! They were flabbergasted.

Think you can do better? Have at it (no help from Google or Chat GPT beforehand, though)!

 

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Topics: word quiz, vocabulary quiz

Can You Come Out Tonight?

Posted by Phil Jamieson   Sep 15, 2021 10:30:00 AM

On this day in 1962, the Four Seasons earned their first No. 1 hit with “Sherry.” Frankie Valli had been hard at work trying to become a star for the better part of a decade before the Four Seasons achieved their breakthrough. They had come together as a group in several stages over the previous four years, changing their name in 1961 from the Four Lovers after failing an audition at a New Jersey bowling alley called The Four Seasons. It was keyboard player Bob Gaudio who wrote the song that would launch the group’s career.

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Topics: vocabulary test, word quiz, vocabulary quiz

Words in Orbit

Posted by Conni Eversull   Sep 17, 2019 8:15:00 AM

Hello, GrammarPhile blog subscriber,

Many of you have not subscribed to our Words! Words! Words! quizzes. So, I thought you might like to see what you're missing. If you'd like to subscribe, please go to the "Subscribe to Email Updates" block to the right and select the Words! Words! Words! subscription. 

I hope you enjoy this quiz. Let me know how you did in the comments section.

***

On September 17, 1976, NASA publicly unveiled its first space shuttle, the Enterprise, during a ceremony in Palmdale, California. Development of the aircraft-like spacecraft cost almost $10 billion and took nearly a decade. In 1977, the Enterprise became the first space shuttle to fly freely when it was lifted to a height of 25,000 feet by a Boeing 747 airplane and then released, gliding back to Edwards Air Force Base on its own accord. Try our word quiz and see how high you can soar and how far you can glide.

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Topics: word test, word quiz, vocabulary quiz

Do You Know the Etymology of These Common Words, Phrases, and Colloquialisms?

Posted by Phil Jamieson   Jul 19, 2018 7:30:00 AM

The English language is always growing and changing, with hundreds of words being added to the dictionary each year. And understanding how our words and common phrases originated and continue to change over time is fascinating.

Studying etymology allows us to better understand our world and its history, the people in it, and the way we communicate with one another.

Take the quiz below to see if you know the origins of some common words, phrases, and colloquialisms we use. Share your results and comments with us below and share this quiz with others who might enjoy it too!

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Topics: vocabulary, vocabulary quiz

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