CozyWorld game guide · By CozyWorld

This guide covers our own game, written from the current game rules and browser checks.

Fun Trivia Questions and Answers

A hundred general knowledge trivia questions with their answers, in eight topics from food and cooking to the arts, each with a one-line reason the answer is right. They come from the bank of our free daily trivia quiz, along with how the quiz works and how to do better at questions you are not sure of.

Good trivia questions have answers you can almost reach: something you half remember from a book, a trip or a dinner table argument, and a reason that makes you nod once you hear it. Here are a hundred of them, in eight topics: food and cooking, nature and animals, geography, history, science, words and language, sports and games, and the arts. Every one has four possible answers in the game, the right one here, and one line on why it is right.

They come from the question bank of Saltbox Harbor Trivia, CozyWorld’s free daily trivia quiz, where Thaddeus, a brown pelican in a fisherman’s sweater, reads the questions in the back room of a harbor pub. Each question in the bank was checked against the Wikipedia article it names, and the answer and the line on why both come from a passage of that article. Cover the Answer and Why columns and test yourself, or read them aloud at the table. The guide starts with how the quiz works and a few habits that help with questions you are unsure of; the questions follow, topic by topic.

Saltbox Harbor Trivia: the quiz-night back room of a harborside pub at dusk. Thaddeus, a brown cartoon pelican in an ink-blue knitted sweater and brass half-moon glasses, stands behind the oak counter under a brass pendant lamp, holding a question card. Beside him a sash window looks out on the harbor, with a lit lighthouse on the point and boats at their moorings, and a chalkboard on the wall reads Quiz Night. On the counter lie a quiz sheet with one answer ticked, a brass bell, a mug of tea and a stack of answer cards.

How the quiz works

Saltbox Harbor Trivia is a multiple-choice quiz. Each quiz is ten questions, each question has four answers, and exactly one is right. The object is simply to get as many of the ten right as you can. There is no clock, no penalty for a wrong answer beyond the point you did not score, and no way to lose a quiz partway through.

Every day brings the Daily 10: ten questions with at least one from each of the eight topics, the same ten for everyone on that date, with the answers in the same order. It counts once a day. Finish it on days in a row and your streak grows; miss a day and it starts again. Your best streak and your best daily score are kept on your device.

Any time, you can also play a topic quiz: ten questions from one of the eight topics, or ten from the whole bank. Each topic deals from its own shuffled deck, so you see the rest of a topic before a question comes round again. In our own simulation of the game’s decks, a question was never asked again within 42 questions of the same topic, and in our simulation of two years of Daily 10s, the shortest gap before a daily question came back was 66 days.

After every answer the right one is marked with a tick and the one you picked, if it was wrong, with a cross, and a line underneath says why, with a link to the article the question was checked against. At the end of a quiz you get your score, a dry word from Thaddeus and a review of all ten.

The quiz at a glance
Daily 10Topic quiz
Questions1010
Answers per question4, one right4, one right
TopicsAll eight, at least one eachOne topic, or the whole bank
Same for everyoneYes, by dateNo, your own shuffled deck
How oftenOnce a day, with a streakAs often as you like
What is keptScore by date, streak, best scoreQuizzes played, best score, share right
Actual Saltbox Harbor Trivia gameplay on a desktop browser: question 3 of the Daily 10, a words and language question asking which languages the word hygge comes from, answered right with Danish and Norwegian ticked in green, a box underneath explaining why with a link to the Wikipedia article, the score line reading 2 right of 3 and a Next question button, all on a linen sheet in an oak frame, with Thaddeus the brown pelican in his ink-blue sweater and reading glasses behind the counter at the right, in front of a window onto the harbor at dusk.
Actual browser gameplay on a desktop screen: a Daily 10 question answered right, with the line on why and its source.

Controls

On a phone or tablet, tap an answer to pick it, then tap Next question. With a mouse, click. The Quizzes button at the top of the board goes back to the list of quizzes, and a quiz you leave there is kept exactly where you left it, even if you close the page.

With a keyboard, press 1 to 4 or A to D to pick an answer, or move between the answers with the arrow keys and press Enter. After answering, Enter or N goes to the next question, and Escape goes back to the list of quizzes. Restart in the toolbar deals ten new questions in a topic quiz.

Actual Saltbox Harbor Trivia gameplay at phone width: Thaddeus the pelican behind the counter at the top beside a window onto the lighthouse, and below him the quiz board with question 1 of the Daily 10, a history question about Spartacus, The Roman Republic ticked as the right answer among four answer cards lettered A to D, the start of the line on why, and the Next question button at the bottom within reach of a thumb.
Actual browser gameplay at phone width: the four answers are big enough to tap, and Next sits at the bottom of the board.

Beginner strategy: answering the questions you are not sure of

Most trivia questions are not won by knowing the answer outright. They are won by knowing enough to throw out the wrong ones. With four answers, ruling out one takes a blind guess from one chance in four to one in three, and ruling out two makes it one in two. In our own simulation of 100,000 Daily 10 quizzes answered completely at random, the average score was 2.5 out of 10, so every answer you can eliminate is worth having.

Start with the answers that are in the wrong category altogether: a city offered for a river, a country on the wrong continent, a painter from the wrong century. Then use what the question gives you. A question that names a region, a language or a date usually contains a clue to the answer, and the names of things often carry their meaning, especially in science and in the history of words.

For questions with a number or a year, anchor on something you are sure of and reason from it. You may not know the year of the Boston Tea Party, but you know it came before the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and in the game’s version of that question that rules out two of the four years.

Common mistakes

Answering a slightly different question. Words like largest, first, only, longest and not change everything, and they are easy to skim past. A country’s capital and its largest city are different questions, and in Australia they are different cities.

Picking the famous answer because it is famous. Quiz writers know which wrong answer most people reach for. If a question seems too easy, read it again: the familiar name is sometimes right, but it is also the most common trap.

Changing a sound first instinct for no reason. If you knew the answer before you started second-guessing, it is usually still right. Change it only when you can say why the new answer is better.

Skipping the why. A bare fact fades by the next morning, but a fact with a reason attached tends to stay, and the same facts turn up again in other questions.

Tips for better scores

Play the Daily 10 first. It counts once a day and it carries your streak, and because it draws from all eight topics it shows you where you are strong and where you are not.

Practice your weakest topic. The Scores card shows the share of answers you get right in each topic quiz; a run of ten from the one with the lowest share is the quickest way to raise your daily score.

Follow the source when a question surprises you. The link under each answer goes to the Wikipedia article the question was checked against, and reading a paragraph around the fact makes it stick.

Read questions aloud if you are playing with someone. Trivia is a social game at heart, and a second person often remembers the half of the answer you forgot.

Food and cooking trivia questions

Where dishes come from, what is really in them and the kitchen words behind them. Questions on spices and sauces tend to turn on one detail, such as a part of a plant or a place, so read the question twice.

Food and Cooking: 13 questions
#QuestionAnswerWhy
1Botanically, what is a peanut?A legumeThe peanut is a legume grown mainly for its edible seeds, which ripen underground.
2Hollandaise sauce is an emulsion of egg yolk, lemon juice and what?ButterHollandaise is an emulsion of egg yolk, melted butter and lemon juice.
3What makes sourdough bread rise?Wild yeast and bacteriaSourdough is leavened by a starter of naturally occurring yeast and lactobacillus bacteria.
4Mole poblano, a dark sauce of chili peppers and chocolate, is native to which Mexican state?PueblaMole poblano is an old dish native to the state of Puebla, and has been called Mexico’s national dish.
5The croissant was inspired by the shape of which Austrian pastry?The kipferlThe croissant takes its crescent shape from the Austrian kipferl but uses a laminated yeast dough.
6The heat of chili peppers is measured on which scale?The Scoville scaleThe Scoville scale measures the spiciness of chili peppers in Scoville heat units.
7Clotted cream is most associated with which two English counties?Devon and CornwallClotted cream is associated with the dairy farms of Devon and Cornwall in south west England.
8German pumpernickel bread is made from which grain?RyePumpernickel is a heavy, dark bread made from coarsely ground rye.
9To julienne a carrot is to cut it into what?Long thin stripsJulienne is a knife cut into long thin strips, like matchsticks.
10Turmeric belongs to which plant family?The ginger familyTurmeric is Curcuma longa, a flowering plant in the ginger family, Zingiberaceae.
11Pizza Margherita is traditionally said to be named after whom?A queen of ItalyA popular legend says a Naples pizzaiolo created it in 1889 in honor of the visiting Queen Margherita.
12Tequila is distilled from which plant?Blue agaveTequila is distilled from the blue agave plant, mainly around the city of Tequila in Jalisco.
13Cloves are the dried what of a tropical tree?Flower budsCloves are the aromatic flower buds of Syzygium aromaticum, a tree in the myrtle family.

Nature and animal trivia questions

Animals, trees and the odd habits of both. A good share of these reward knowing a family resemblance: which animals are related, and what a plant or animal actually is underneath its common name.

Nature and Animals: 13 questions
#QuestionAnswerWhy
14Where were cats first domesticated?The Near EastThe cat was first domesticated in the Near East around 7500 BC.
15Which oily compound in poison ivy causes an allergic skin rash on contact?UrushiolIn most people, urushiol causes an allergic skin rash on contact.
16Methuselah, one of the oldest known living trees, is what kind of tree?A bristlecone pineMethuselah is a Great Basin bristlecone pine in California’s White Mountains, more than 4,800 years old.
17A lichen is a partnership between fungi and what?Algae or cyanobacteriaA lichen is a colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among the filaments of fungi.
18The axolotl, a salamander that keeps its gills as an adult, is native to lakes in which country?MexicoThe axolotl is native to Lake Xochimilco and Lake Chalco in the Valley of Mexico.
19Hyperion, the world’s tallest known living tree, is what species?A coast redwoodHyperion is a coast redwood in Northern California, measured at about 116 m tall.
20What is the largest toothed predator on Earth?The sperm whaleThe sperm whale is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator.
21What often grows on the fur of sloths, tinting it green?AlgaeSloths move so little that algae grow on their fur, helping camouflage them.
22The Australian lyrebird is famous for what?Mimicking almost any soundLyrebirds can mimic natural and artificial sounds from their surroundings.
23Besides the platypus, which animals are the only other living egg-laying mammals?EchidnasThe five living monotreme species, the egg-laying mammals, are the platypus and four species of echidnas.
24Which is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguins?The emperor penguinThe emperor penguin is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species.
25Where does a flamingo’s pink color come from?Pigments in its foodFlamingos get their pink and red colors from carotenoid pigments in their diet.
26Ants are most closely related to which insects?Wasps and beesAnts evolved from wasp-like ancestors and belong to the same order as wasps and bees.

Geography trivia questions

Rivers, mountains, capitals and the borders between them. When you are unsure, think about which answers are in the right part of the world at all; that usually rules out two of the four.

World Geography: 13 questions
#QuestionAnswerWhy
27Lesotho is completely surrounded by which country?South AfricaSurrounded by South Africa, Lesotho is the largest of the world’s three sovereign enclaves.
28The Gobi Desert lies in China and which other country?MongoliaThe Gobi is a large, cold desert and grassland region in southern Mongolia and North China.
29Which strait divides the city of Istanbul between Europe and Asia?The BosporusThe Bosporus runs through Istanbul and forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia.
30Victoria Falls is on which river?The ZambeziVictoria Falls is on the Zambezi River, on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe.
31What is the longest river in the United States?The MissouriBy the commonly cited length of 2,341 miles, the Missouri is the nation’s longest river, slightly longer than the Mississippi it flows into.
32What is the longest river in Europe?The VolgaThe Volga is the longest river in Europe.
33Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside Asia, is in which country?ArgentinaAconcagua, in the Andes of Mendoza Province, Argentina, is the highest mountain outside Asia.
34Tokyo was originally known by which name?EdoTokyo, originally Edo, rose to prominence in 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate.
35Angel Falls, the world’s tallest uninterrupted waterfall, is in which country?VenezuelaAngel Falls in Venezuela is 979 m high, with an uninterrupted plunge of 807 m.
36What is the capital of Australia?CanberraCanberra, a planned city, is the capital of Australia.
37Thailand was formerly known by which name?SiamThailand was historically known as Siam.
38Which continent has the highest average elevation?AntarcticaAntarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest continent and has the highest average elevation.
39Iceland sits on which geological feature, between Europe and North America?The Mid-Atlantic RidgeIceland lies on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Europe and North America.

History trivia questions

Dates, voyages, empires and firsts. For a year question, anchor on something you do know (a war, a reign, a century) and count from there.

History: 13 questions
#QuestionAnswerWhy
40After the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon was exiled to which island, where he died?Saint HelenaAfter Waterloo he was sent to Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died in 1821.
41In which year did the Boston Tea Party take place?1773The Boston Tea Party was a protest that took place on December 16, 1773, during the American Revolution.
42Who was the first human to travel into outer space?Yuri GagarinYuri Gagarin, flying under the call sign Kedr, was the first human to travel into space.
43Hannibal, who led war elephants over the Alps into Italy, was a general of which city?CarthageHannibal was a Carthaginian general who commanded the forces of Carthage against the Roman Republic.
44The Silk Road network began with the expansion of which Chinese dynasty into Central Asia?The Han dynastyThe network began when the Han dynasty expanded into Central Asia around 114 BCE.
45The Code of Hammurabi is a law code from which ancient civilization?BabylonIt is a Babylonian legal text composed around 1753 BC under Hammurabi, king of Babylon.
46The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States from the people of which country?FranceThe statue was a gift from the people of France, dedicated in 1886.
47Which German craftsman invented the movable-type printing press?Johannes GutenbergJohannes Gutenberg was a German inventor and craftsman who invented the movable-type printing press.
48The D-Day landings of June 6, 1944, took place on the coast of which French region?NormandyThe Normandy landings on June 6, 1944, began the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord.
49What was the capital of the Inca Empire?CuscoCusco was founded in the 12th century as the capital of the Kingdom of Cusco and later of the Inca Empire.
50Who led the first expedition to reach the South Pole, in 1911?Roald AmundsenAmundsen’s Norwegian team reached the South Pole on December 14, 1911.
51In which year did the California Gold Rush begin?1848It began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma.
52The Berlin Wall stood from 1961 until which year?1989The wall encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany.

Science trivia questions

The planets, the elements and the body, with a few of the people who worked them out. Many science answers can be reasoned out from the name: words often carry their Greek or Latin meaning.

Science: 12 questions
#QuestionAnswerWhy
53Diamond is a solid form of which element?CarbonDiamond is a solid form of the element carbon, with its atoms in a crystal structure.
54Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its what?DiameterPi is a circle’s circumference divided by its diameter, about 3.14159.
55Olympus Mons, one of the largest volcanoes in the Solar System, is on which planet?MarsOlympus Mons is a huge shield volcano on Mars.
56Edward Jenner pioneered the first vaccine, against which disease?SmallpoxJenner pioneered the smallpox vaccine, the world’s first vaccine.
57Marie and Pierre Curie named the element polonium after which country?PolandPolonium was named after Poland, Marie Curie’s homeland.
58Dry ice is the solid form of which substance?Carbon dioxideDry ice is solid carbon dioxide, which turns straight to gas at −78.5 °C.
59Which acid gives vinegar its sour taste?Acetic acidVinegar is mainly water and acetic acid.
60Halley’s Comet returns to the inner Solar System about every how many years?74 to 79 yearsIt is the only known short-period comet regularly visible to the naked eye, appearing roughly every 74 to 79 years.
61What is the nearest star to the Sun?Proxima CentauriProxima Centauri, a small red dwarf about 4.25 light-years away, is the Sun’s nearest star.
62Which mineral was historically called “black lead” or plumbago?GraphiteGraphite was historically called black lead or plumbago, from confusion with similar-looking lead ores.
63Which organ produces the hormone insulin?The pancreasInsulin is made by the beta cells of the pancreatic islets.
64Polaris, the North Star, is in which constellation?Ursa MinorPolaris is a yellow supergiant in the northern constellation of Ursa Minor.

Word and language trivia questions

Figures of speech, word origins and the languages of the world. The surprising histories of everyday words make some of the best quiz questions there are.

Words and Language: 12 questions
#QuestionAnswerWhy
65A word formed by rearranging the letters of another word is called what?An anagramAn anagram rearranges the letters of a word or phrase to make a new one.
66Which official language of South Africa makes especially heavy use of click consonants?XhosaIn one count, about 10 percent of basic Xhosa words contained a click.
67Which American lexicographer published An American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828?Noah WebsterNoah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language appeared in 1828.
68The leotard was made famous by Jules Léotard, who was what kind of 19th-century performer?An acrobatThe garment was made famous by the French acrobatic performer Jules Léotard (1838–1870).
69The word “quarantine” comes from the Italian for a period of how many days?FortyIt comes from quarantena, meaning “forty days,” used in Venetian in the 14th and 15th centuries.
70The word “boycott” comes from Captain Charles Boycott, a land agent shunned by locals in which country?IrelandBoycott was an English land agent whose shunning by his community in Ireland gave English the word.
71A language used to communicate between people who do not share a native language is called what?A lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used between speakers whose native languages differ.
72In the acronym “radar,” what does the first R stand for?RadioRadar is short for radio detection and ranging.
73Saying “not bad” to mean “good” is an example of which figure of speech?LitotesLitotes emphasizes a point by stating a negative to affirm a positive, as in “not bad.”
74The word “shampoo” came into English from which language?HindiShampoo dates to 1762 and comes from the Hindi cā̃pō, from a Sanskrit root meaning “to press, knead, or soothe.”
75What is a misheard phrase, often a song lyric, called?A mondegreenA mondegreen is a mishearing of a phrase that gives it a new meaning.
76What is the ¶ symbol, used to mark a new paragraph, called?A pilcrowThe pilcrow, ¶, is a typographical character marking a new paragraph.

Sports and games trivia questions

Rules, numbers and origins, from the board games of ancient Egypt to the snooker table. Counting questions are easier if you picture the field, the board or the deck.

Sports and Games: 12 questions
#QuestionAnswerWhy
77Senet, one of the oldest known board games, comes from which ancient civilization?Ancient EgyptSenet is a board game from ancient Egypt, played with pawns on a 30-square board.
78A regulation professional baseball game lasts how many innings?NineA standard professional baseball game has nine innings.
79The racket sport squash was invented at which English school?Harrow SchoolSquash was invented at Harrow School around 1830.
80The marathon commemorates a legendary messenger who ran from the Battle of Marathon to which city?AthensLegend says the messenger Pheidippides ran the whole way to Athens to announce the Greek victory.
81Which chess move lets a player move the king and a rook in the same turn?CastlingCastling moves the king two squares toward a rook, and the rook to the square the king crossed.
82How many red balls are on a snooker table at the start of a frame?15A frame of snooker starts with 15 reds and six colored balls.
83A standard Go board has a grid of how many lines by how many?19 by 19The standard Go board is a 19 by 19 grid of lines.
84The first commercial jigsaw puzzles, from around 1760, were cut from what?MapsJohn Spilsbury, a London cartographer, cut up world maps as a geography teaching aid.
85Polo players drive the ball with a wooden mallet while doing what?Riding horsesPlayers hit the ball between the goal posts with a wooden mallet while riding at up to 35 miles per hour.
86In chess, what is it called when the player to move has no legal move but is not in check?StalemateStalemate results in a draw, which can save a player who would otherwise lose.
87The boules game pétanque comes from which country?FrancePétanque is a form of boules that originated in France.
88The first basketball games used what for hoops?Peach basketsNaismith nailed up peach baskets as the first goals.

Arts trivia questions

Painting, music, books and the stage. Picture the work if you can; a famous image or a first line often brings the name back with it.

Arts: 12 questions
#QuestionAnswerWhy
89Who wrote Robinson Crusoe?Daniel DefoeRobinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published in 1719.
90In sheet music, what does the marking “forte” tell a player to do?Play loudlyForte, marked f, means loud; piano, marked p, means soft.
91Flamenco, an art form of song, dance, and guitar, comes from which region of Spain?AndalusiaFlamenco developed in Andalusia in southern Spain.
92Mozart was born in which city?SalzburgMozart was born on January 27, 1756, at Getreidegasse 9 in Salzburg.
93At which London address does Sherlock Holmes live?221B Baker StreetDr. Watson often shares quarters with Holmes at 221B Baker Street, London, where many of the stories begin.
94In Gulliver’s Travels, what is the land of tiny people called?LilliputShipwrecked on his first voyage, Gulliver is captured by people less than 6 inches tall on the island of Lilliput.
95The Venus de Milo was found on which Greek island?MilosThe statue was discovered in 1820 on the island of Milos.
96A line of iambic pentameter has how many iambs, or feet?FiveEach line has five metrical feet, and an iamb is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, as in “a-BOVE.”
97Ikebana is the Japanese art of what?Flower arrangementIkebana is the Japanese art of flower arrangement.
98Which Brontë sister wrote Wuthering Heights?EmilyWuthering Heights is the only novel by Emily Brontë, first published under the pen name Ellis Bell.
99Which artist painted The Persistence of Memory, with its soft, melting pocket watches?Salvador DalíThe Persistence of Memory is a 1931 painting by Salvador Dalí.
100Who painted American Gothic, the portrait of a farmer holding a pitchfork beside a woman?Grant WoodAmerican Gothic is a 1930 painting by Grant Wood.

Related games

If you like the Daily 10, a daily puzzle may suit you too. Sprout Sudoku and Sprout Killer Sudoku have the classic number puzzles with hints that explain the next step, and Cottage Word Search has 48 themed word searches whose leftover letters spell a saying. For numbers, Bergamot Parlor 24 asks you to make exactly 24 from four cards, and Hollyhock Math Path asks for a route through a garden that adds up.

All of them are free on CozyWorld, run in the browser on a phone, tablet or computer, and save your progress on your device.

Keep playing

The best way to get better at trivia is to keep meeting the facts, a few at a time, with a reason attached. Play the Daily 10 each morning or over lunch, read the why after every answer, and use a topic quiz on the subject you get wrong most often. For more calm classics that reward a good memory, try Cottage Word Search, with 48 themed puzzles through four seasons; Sprout Sudoku, the classic number puzzle with hints that explain the next step; or Hollyhock Math Path, where a route through a number garden has to add up.

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