English Trivia
1. In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes...when you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. That's where the phrase, "good night, sleep tight" came from.
2. The term "the whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards."
3. The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, GP
4. The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It To Beaver."
5. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
6. The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1.
7. On average, 100 people choke to death on ball point pens every year, so be careful.
8. One of the longest one-syllable words in the English language is screeched. (Strengths is another one.)
9. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.
10. "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".
11. The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
12. Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
13. There are only four words in the English language which end in "-dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
14. 'Stewardesses' is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
15. Typewriter is the only ten letter word you can type on the top row of your keyboard.
16. A 10 foot tall emu was spotted walking the streets of New York in 1973, it had accidently escaped from a circus that specialized in large exotic birds. When police questioned the circus owners they responded saying "George was constipated, so we thought a run around the grounds may help him feel better" Police fined the circus 25 dollars, and 5 months later a bi-law was passed stating that all emus within New York City must be on a leash.
17. Things that are Canadian, or invented by Canadians: Mike Myers, Michael J. Fox, Jim Carey, Basketball, the 24 time zone divisions, Hockey, Apple Pie and the reason the Whitehouse is white. The Canadians burned the capital to the ground, and the US repainted it.
18. 65% of statistics are made up.
19. More people are killed annually by donkeys than in airplane crashes.
20. If Barbie were life size her measurements would be 39-23-33
21. A duck's quack does echo, despite rumors to the contrary. 1 2 3
22. Pinocchio is Italian for pine eye (Pino is Italian for pine, Occhio is Italian for eye)
23. Camels milk doesn't curdle.
24. Murpheys oil soap is a chemical commonly used to wash elephants.
25. Porcupines float in water.
26. Cats urine glows under a black light.
27. Blueberry jelly beans were especially made for Ronald Reagan.
28. In every episode of Seinfeld there's a superman somewhere.
29. Checkmate comes from the Persian phrase "shah mat" which means the king is dead.
30. Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds while dogs have only ten.
31. 91% of Americans lie daily.
32. "two plus eleven" and "one plus twelve" not only give the same result but use the same letters
33. With lunchables you have 50% less crackers then toppings. To use them all with no left overs you would have to do two toppings per cracker.
34. When you sneeze water can come out of your mouth at speeds of 60mph.
35. Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite
36. On a Canadian 2 dollar bill the flag flying over the parliament building appears to be an American flag. It's actually Canada's earlier flag of the Red Ensign.
37. Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated
38. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar
39. Almonds are a member of the peach family
40. There are 366 dimples on a regulation golf ball
41. A dime has 118 ridges around the edge
42. "Angry" and "hungry" are the only words in the English language ending in "-gry" (although gry is a word, it does not *end* in -gry, since a suffix requires the word before it to be a word)
43. Sloths are actually fast, they just prefer to move at a slow pace
44. There are only two families who produced a father and son who were US presidents: Bush and Adams.
45. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes
46. Humans and horses are the only two animals that have hymens
47. Polish is the only word in the english language that has two completely different meanings when the first letter is capitalized.
48. The longest word in the English language is Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
49. Margaret Kerry was the live action model for Walt Disney's Tinkerbell.
50. 111,111,111 * 111,111,111 = 12345678987654321
51. The average human lies at least twice a day.
52. Before Late Night Television, Jay Leno appeared in an episode of Laverne and Shirley.
53. In "American Graffiti", the license plate on Richard Dreyfusses' car is changed every time you see it.
54. Humans, dolphins and apes are the only mammals that have sex for pleasure.
55. The shortest 5 syllable word in the english language is ideology.
56."I am" "Go" is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
57. The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses.
58. A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
59. There are more chickens than people in the world.
60. Two thirds of the world's eggplants are grown in New Jersey.
61. All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.
62. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
63. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
64. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
65. Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
66. The only real people to be heads on a Pez dispenser are Betsy Ross, Daniel Boone and Paul Revere (source).
67. When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home, the stadium becomes the state's third largest city.
68. The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life"
69. A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.
70. A goldfish has a memory span of threeseconds months. (source)
71. It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
72. The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
73. Who's that playing the piano on the "Mad About You" theme? Paul Reiser himself.
74. In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak during a debate.
75. The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
76. Mr. Rogers was an ordained minister.
77. John Lennon's first girlfriend was named Thelma Pickles.
78. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
79. "Underground" is the only word in the English language that begins and ends with the letters "und."
80. The combination "ough" can be pronounced in ten different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman swam through the lough at Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."
81. The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.
82. The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.
83. Facetious, abstemious and arsenious contain all the vowels in the correct order.
84. The sloth's metabolism is so slow that it can stay under water for more than 30 minutes and not drown.
85. Spanish moss is a close relative of the pineapple.
86. "A quick sly fox jumped over the lazy brown dog" has every letter in the alphabet. So does "The five boxing wizards jump quickly."
87. 'Cash Lost In 'Em' is an anagram of 'Slot Machines'
88. Horses can't throw up (Explanation)
89. A turkey can drown if it looks up while it's raining.
90. The term "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass mokey" started when sailors in the navy witnessed the stack of cannon balls tumble off a steel plate called a brass monkey in winters on the oceans.
91. The electric door bell was invented by Joseph Henry in 1831.
92. The wingspan of a Boeing 747 (~ 213 feet) is longer than the Wright brothers' first flight (~ 120 feet).
93. Alexander Graham Bell refused to have a phone in his study - the ringing drove him nuts.
94. Hostess Twinkies are 68% air.
95. Time Magazine's "Man" of the Year in 1982: The Personal Computer.
96. Lewis Carroll wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland standing up.
97. The smallest unit of time is the yoctosecond, which is .000,000,000,000,000,000,000,001 second.
98. Elvis had a pet monkey named Scatter.
99. The average adult has 5 million hair follicles.
100. Only female ducks quack. The males coo, hoto, honk and grunt, but they don't quack.
101. Pumice is the only rock that floats.
102. 20% of all publications sold in Japan are comic books.
103. The average American consumes 87 hot dogs a year.
104. The tallest mountain on earth is not Mt. Everest, it's Hawaii's Mauna Kea, 31,800 feet from the ocean floor.
105. The right rear tire on your car will generally wear out before the others do.
106. Superglue will not stick to Teflon.
107. Insects outnumber people 1 million to one.
108. After spending 84 days in Skylab, astronauts found that they were 2 inches taller.
109. Enter the value 0.1134 on your calculator, then turn it upside down. You've just written "hello."
110. There is 1 slot machine in Las Vegas for every 8 inhabitants.
111. Every year, 5,000 people injure themselves shooting pool.
112. 80% of all life on Earth is found in the ocean.
113. Sneakers were invented in 1917. They were called Keds.
114. A survey of people's greatest fears had the following results: 1) Heights, 2) Snakes, 3) Spiders, 4) Public speaking.
115. The average IQ of police officers is 104.
116. Timothy Leary was the godfather of actresses Uma Thurman and Winona Ryder.
117. All of your body's functions, even your heart, stop when you sneeze.
118. The average American family spends more on taxes than on food, clothing and shelter combined.
119. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of where they grew up.
120. In almost every language on earth, the word for Mother begins with the letter 'M'.
121. If you counted 100 stars a minute, it would take 2,000 years to count all the stars in our galaxy.
122. Every day, 1 acre of trees produces enough oxygen for 18 people.
123. If Earth were the size of an apple, its atmosphere would be thinner than the skin.
124. Before Columbus arrived in the Americas, no native american had type B blood.
125. Pintos and Palominos are colors, not breeds, of horses.
126. An adult takes an average of 16 breaths a minute.
127. The best-selling passenger car ever was the VW Beetle. At least 22 million have been sold since 1937.
128. How long is a million seconds? 11.5 days.
129. A french kiss is known as an english kiss in France.
130. What do Albert Einstein, Tom Cruise and Walt Disney have in common? Dyslexia.
131. Scientists say the easiest sound for the human ear to hear is "Ah."
132. When Astronauts returned from the moon, they had to go through customs.
133. The average adult laughs 7 to 8 times a day.
134. Elephants are the only mammals that can't jump.
135. It takes 7 shuffles to thoroughly mix a 52-card deck.
136. The index finger on the Statue of Liberty is 8 feet long.
137. The 7 deadly sins are: Pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, lust.
138. The 7 virtues are: Faith, hope, charity, fortitude, prudence, justice, temperance.
139. The 7 dwarfs are: Dopey, Sneezy, Bashful, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Doc.
140. The 7 seas are: Red, Adriatic, Black, Caspian, Mediterranean, Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean.
141. Napoleon was not short as many people think. He was in fact 5 foot 6 1/2 inches, which is slightly taller than the average French man at the time. The cause of the confusion was that in his autopsy it was said he was 5 foot 2 inches, but that was in French feet.1
142. The top speed of a racing pigeon in flight is 110mph.
143. A bison can jump as high as 6 feet off the ground.
144. It's impossible for most people to lick their elbow (try it).
145. A human yell would take 3 1/2 hours to travel from New York to San Francisco.
146. Princeton professor John W. Tukey coined the term "software" in 1958.
147. The average cost of a movie in 1940 was 24¢
148. Aristotle stuttered.
2. The term "the whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards."
3. The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, GP
4. The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It To Beaver."
5. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
6. The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1.
7. On average, 100 people choke to death on ball point pens every year, so be careful.
8. One of the longest one-syllable words in the English language is screeched. (Strengths is another one.)
9. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.
10. "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".
11. The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
12. Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
13. There are only four words in the English language which end in "-dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
14. 'Stewardesses' is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
15. Typewriter is the only ten letter word you can type on the top row of your keyboard.
16. A 10 foot tall emu was spotted walking the streets of New York in 1973, it had accidently escaped from a circus that specialized in large exotic birds. When police questioned the circus owners they responded saying "George was constipated, so we thought a run around the grounds may help him feel better" Police fined the circus 25 dollars, and 5 months later a bi-law was passed stating that all emus within New York City must be on a leash.
17. Things that are Canadian, or invented by Canadians: Mike Myers, Michael J. Fox, Jim Carey, Basketball, the 24 time zone divisions, Hockey, Apple Pie and the reason the Whitehouse is white. The Canadians burned the capital to the ground, and the US repainted it.
18. 65% of statistics are made up.
19. More people are killed annually by donkeys than in airplane crashes.
20. If Barbie were life size her measurements would be 39-23-33
21. A duck's quack does echo, despite rumors to the contrary. 1 2 3
22. Pinocchio is Italian for pine eye (Pino is Italian for pine, Occhio is Italian for eye)
23. Camels milk doesn't curdle.
24. Murpheys oil soap is a chemical commonly used to wash elephants.
25. Porcupines float in water.
26. Cats urine glows under a black light.
27. Blueberry jelly beans were especially made for Ronald Reagan.
28. In every episode of Seinfeld there's a superman somewhere.
29. Checkmate comes from the Persian phrase "shah mat" which means the king is dead.
30. Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds while dogs have only ten.
31. 91% of Americans lie daily.
32. "two plus eleven" and "one plus twelve" not only give the same result but use the same letters
33. With lunchables you have 50% less crackers then toppings. To use them all with no left overs you would have to do two toppings per cracker.
34. When you sneeze water can come out of your mouth at speeds of 60mph.
35. Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite
36. On a Canadian 2 dollar bill the flag flying over the parliament building appears to be an American flag. It's actually Canada's earlier flag of the Red Ensign.
37. Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated
38. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar
39. Almonds are a member of the peach family
40. There are 366 dimples on a regulation golf ball
41. A dime has 118 ridges around the edge
42. "Angry" and "hungry" are the only words in the English language ending in "-gry" (although gry is a word, it does not *end* in -gry, since a suffix requires the word before it to be a word)
43. Sloths are actually fast, they just prefer to move at a slow pace
44. There are only two families who produced a father and son who were US presidents: Bush and Adams.
45. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes
46. Humans and horses are the only two animals that have hymens
47. Polish is the only word in the english language that has two completely different meanings when the first letter is capitalized.
48. The longest word in the English language is Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
49. Margaret Kerry was the live action model for Walt Disney's Tinkerbell.
50. 111,111,111 * 111,111,111 = 12345678987654321
51. The average human lies at least twice a day.
52. Before Late Night Television, Jay Leno appeared in an episode of Laverne and Shirley.
53. In "American Graffiti", the license plate on Richard Dreyfusses' car is changed every time you see it.
54. Humans, dolphins and apes are the only mammals that have sex for pleasure.
55. The shortest 5 syllable word in the english language is ideology.
56.
57. The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses.
58. A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
59. There are more chickens than people in the world.
60. Two thirds of the world's eggplants are grown in New Jersey.
61. All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.
62. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
63. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
64. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
65. Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
66. The only real people to be heads on a Pez dispenser are Betsy Ross, Daniel Boone and Paul Revere (source).
67. When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home, the stadium becomes the state's third largest city.
68. The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life"
69. A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.
70. A goldfish has a memory span of three
71. It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
72. The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
73. Who's that playing the piano on the "Mad About You" theme? Paul Reiser himself.
74. In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak during a debate.
75. The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
76. Mr. Rogers was an ordained minister.
77. John Lennon's first girlfriend was named Thelma Pickles.
78. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
79. "Underground" is the only word in the English language that begins and ends with the letters "und."
80. The combination "ough" can be pronounced in ten different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman swam through the lough at Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."
81. The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.
82. The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.
83. Facetious, abstemious and arsenious contain all the vowels in the correct order.
84. The sloth's metabolism is so slow that it can stay under water for more than 30 minutes and not drown.
85. Spanish moss is a close relative of the pineapple.
86. "A quick sly fox jumped over the lazy brown dog" has every letter in the alphabet. So does "The five boxing wizards jump quickly."
87. 'Cash Lost In 'Em' is an anagram of 'Slot Machines'
88. Horses can't throw up (Explanation)
89. A turkey can drown if it looks up while it's raining.
90. The term "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass mokey" started when sailors in the navy witnessed the stack of cannon balls tumble off a steel plate called a brass monkey in winters on the oceans.
91. The electric door bell was invented by Joseph Henry in 1831.
92. The wingspan of a Boeing 747 (~ 213 feet) is longer than the Wright brothers' first flight (~ 120 feet).
93. Alexander Graham Bell refused to have a phone in his study - the ringing drove him nuts.
94. Hostess Twinkies are 68% air.
95. Time Magazine's "Man" of the Year in 1982: The Personal Computer.
96. Lewis Carroll wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland standing up.
97. The smallest unit of time is the yoctosecond, which is .000,000,000,000,000,000,000,001 second.
98. Elvis had a pet monkey named Scatter.
99. The average adult has 5 million hair follicles.
100. Only female ducks quack. The males coo, hoto, honk and grunt, but they don't quack.
101. Pumice is the only rock that floats.
102. 20% of all publications sold in Japan are comic books.
103. The average American consumes 87 hot dogs a year.
104. The tallest mountain on earth is not Mt. Everest, it's Hawaii's Mauna Kea, 31,800 feet from the ocean floor.
105. The right rear tire on your car will generally wear out before the others do.
106. Superglue will not stick to Teflon.
107. Insects outnumber people 1 million to one.
108. After spending 84 days in Skylab, astronauts found that they were 2 inches taller.
109. Enter the value 0.1134 on your calculator, then turn it upside down. You've just written "hello."
110. There is 1 slot machine in Las Vegas for every 8 inhabitants.
111. Every year, 5,000 people injure themselves shooting pool.
112. 80% of all life on Earth is found in the ocean.
113. Sneakers were invented in 1917. They were called Keds.
114. A survey of people's greatest fears had the following results: 1) Heights, 2) Snakes, 3) Spiders, 4) Public speaking.
115. The average IQ of police officers is 104.
116. Timothy Leary was the godfather of actresses Uma Thurman and Winona Ryder.
117. All of your body's functions, even your heart, stop when you sneeze.
118. The average American family spends more on taxes than on food, clothing and shelter combined.
119. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of where they grew up.
120. In almost every language on earth, the word for Mother begins with the letter 'M'.
121. If you counted 100 stars a minute, it would take 2,000 years to count all the stars in our galaxy.
122. Every day, 1 acre of trees produces enough oxygen for 18 people.
123. If Earth were the size of an apple, its atmosphere would be thinner than the skin.
124. Before Columbus arrived in the Americas, no native american had type B blood.
125. Pintos and Palominos are colors, not breeds, of horses.
126. An adult takes an average of 16 breaths a minute.
127. The best-selling passenger car ever was the VW Beetle. At least 22 million have been sold since 1937.
128. How long is a million seconds? 11.5 days.
129. A french kiss is known as an english kiss in France.
130. What do Albert Einstein, Tom Cruise and Walt Disney have in common? Dyslexia.
131. Scientists say the easiest sound for the human ear to hear is "Ah."
132. When Astronauts returned from the moon, they had to go through customs.
133. The average adult laughs 7 to 8 times a day.
134. Elephants are the only mammals that can't jump.
135. It takes 7 shuffles to thoroughly mix a 52-card deck.
136. The index finger on the Statue of Liberty is 8 feet long.
137. The 7 deadly sins are: Pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, lust.
138. The 7 virtues are: Faith, hope, charity, fortitude, prudence, justice, temperance.
139. The 7 dwarfs are: Dopey, Sneezy, Bashful, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Doc.
140. The 7 seas are: Red, Adriatic, Black, Caspian, Mediterranean, Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean.
141. Napoleon was not short as many people think. He was in fact 5 foot 6 1/2 inches, which is slightly taller than the average French man at the time. The cause of the confusion was that in his autopsy it was said he was 5 foot 2 inches, but that was in French feet.1
142. The top speed of a racing pigeon in flight is 110mph.
143. A bison can jump as high as 6 feet off the ground.
144. It's impossible for most people to lick their elbow (try it).
145. A human yell would take 3 1/2 hours to travel from New York to San Francisco.
146. Princeton professor John W. Tukey coined the term "software" in 1958.
147. The average cost of a movie in 1940 was 24¢
148. Aristotle stuttered.
