Interactive etymology quiz
How much do you really know about where your vocabulary comes from? Do you know your Latin roots from your Greek ones? How about Japanese from Cantonese? Hebrew from Hawaiian?
Test your knowledge in our interactive etymology quiz and find out if you are a student, an amateur or an expert etymologist.
Etymologies Quiz
Game Over
To search
To collaborate
A clue
A footprint
To take
To give
To understand
To see
Fondue
Fondle
Fond
Fun
Bonsai
Kumquat
Futon
Karaoke
The French gaga meaning ‘a senile person’
The Hebrew root gaʿgūʿīm meaning ‘longings/ feelings of missing ’
From French gager meaning ‘wager’
From Greek gigas meaning ‘giant’
The Latin salamandra meaning ‘salamander’
From the name of the town Salem, in Massachusetts (US)
From the Greek selinon meaning a kind of parsley
The Latin sal meaning ‘to salt’
An acronym of ‘what I know is’
The Hawaiian phrase ‘wiki wiki’ meaning ‘fast’
The Arabic waqafa meaning ‘immobilization’
From Middle Low German wîk meaning ‘town’
From Irish bogach originally from adj. bog ‘soft, moist’
From old French bague meaning ‘pack or bundle’
From the Scottish bogill meaning ‘a ghost or a goblin’
From the Latin baculum meaning ‘a stick’
To go/ to move
To finish
To empower
To aid
Administer
The Latin manducare meaning ‘to chew’
Mint
Mineral
You can find out more about word etymologies in the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins.
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