Twenty-five harder general knowledge questions for a grown-up crowd. Nothing explicit, just trickier: the kind of questions that start arguments at the table.
Which letter doesn't appear in the name of any US state?
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Q
J is in New Jersey, Z in Arizona, X in Texas and New Mexico. No state name contains a Q.
Question 2
Which country has the most time zones, counting its overseas territories?
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France
France spans 12 time zones thanks to territories from French Polynesia to Réunion, 13 if its Antarctic claim is counted. Russia has 11. China uses one.
Question 3
What is the smallest bone in the human body?
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The stapes, in the middle ear
The stapes, or stirrup, is about 3 mm long and passes sound vibrations to the inner ear.
Question 4
Which element has the chemical symbol K?
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Potassium
K is from kalium, the Neo-Latin name. Krypton is Kr and phosphorus is P.
Question 5
In which year did the first iPhone go on sale?
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2007
Steve Jobs announced it in January 2007, and it went on sale in the US on June 29, 2007.
Question 6
Which planet rotates on its side, with an axis tilted about 98 degrees?
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Uranus
Each of Uranus's poles gets about 42 years of continuous sunlight followed by 42 years of darkness.
Question 7
Which country is most often cited as having the most islands?
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Sweden
Sweden counts about 267,000 islands, though many are tiny and the total depends on how an island is defined.
Question 8
Which is the longest-running show in Broadway history?
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The Phantom of the Opera
Phantom opened in 1988 and closed in April 2023 after 13,981 performances.
Question 9
How many is a baker's dozen?
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13
One explanation is that bakers added an extra loaf to avoid being accused of short-changing customers.
Question 10
Which treaty, signed in 1919, formally ended World War I between Germany and the Allies?
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The Treaty of Versailles
It was signed on June 28, 1919, five years to the day after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
Question 11
Which painter cut off part of his own ear in 1888?
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Vincent van Gogh
It happened in Arles, after an argument with Gauguin. Van Gogh painted self-portraits with his bandaged ear soon after.
Question 12
What is the capital of Canada?
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Ottawa
Queen Victoria chose Ottawa in 1857, partly as a compromise between English- and French-speaking Canada.
Question 13
Which of these is NOT one of the three primary colors of light?
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Yellow
Screens mix red, green and blue light. Red and green light together make yellow.
Question 14
What is the official language of Brazil?
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Portuguese
Brazil was a Portuguese colony until 1822 and is the largest Portuguese-speaking country.
Question 15
Which US state has the longest coastline?
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Alaska
Alaska's general coastline of about 6,640 miles is longer than that of all the other states combined.
Question 16
Who wrote the novel 1984?
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George Orwell
Orwell published it in 1949. Huxley wrote Brave New World and Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451.
Question 17
What is a word that reads the same backward and forward called?
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A palindrome
Racecar, level and kayak are palindromes. An anagram rearranges letters into a new word.
Question 18
How many feet are in a mile?
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5,280
A mile is 5,280 feet or 1,760 yards. A kilometer is about 3,281 feet.
Question 19
Who developed the first widely used polio vaccine, announced as safe and effective in 1955?
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Jonas Salk
Salk's injected vaccine came first. Albert Sabin's oral vaccine followed in the early 1960s.
Question 20
Which Shakespeare play includes the line "To be, or not to be"?
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Hamlet
Prince Hamlet speaks it in Act 3, Scene 1, as he weighs life against death.
Question 21
Which is the only continent with land in all four hemispheres?
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Africa
Both the equator and the prime meridian cross Africa, so it reaches into the north, south, east and west.
Question 22
Which Greek letter stands for the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter?
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Pi (π)
Pi is about 3.14159. Its digits never end and never settle into a repeating pattern.
Question 23
Which author created Sherlock Holmes?
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Arthur Conan Doyle
Holmes first appeared in A Study in Scarlet in 1887. Christie created Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.
Question 24
Which element makes up most of the Sun's mass?
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Hydrogen
The Sun is roughly three-quarters hydrogen and one-quarter helium by mass. Fusing hydrogen into helium powers it.
Question 25
Which is the only US state named after a US president?
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Washington
Washington became the 42nd state in 1889. Many cities and counties are named after presidents, but only one state is.
Key numbers
Questions
25
Format
Multiple choice, 4 options
Explanations
Every question
Answers
Hidden until you open them
What "for adults" means here
When people search for trivia for adults, most want questions that aren't for kids, not questions that are explicit. So this set is harder rather than racier: the only letter missing from US state names, the country with the most time zones, the planet that rolls on its side. It works at a work party as well as a bar.
Why these are harder
Each question has a tempting wrong answer. Russia seems like the obvious answer for the most time zones, but France wins because of its overseas territories. Indonesia seems right for the most islands, but Sweden is the one usually cited. These are designed to make a confident team second-guess itself.
How to use them in a quiz night
Use this as round two or three, after the general knowledge warm-up. For a real challenge, drop the four options and let teams write answers; give half a point for close answers like "the ear" for the smallest bone. The guide to writing good trivia questions explains how to build more questions like these.
A few answers come with a caveat worth sharing. Sweden's island count depends on how small a rock can be and still count, and the time-zone record depends on counting overseas territories. Saying so out loud is part of the fun: the arguments are often the best part of a hard round.
Questions people ask
Are these trivia questions for adults explicit?
No. They're harder, not adult-content. They work at an office party, a pub quiz or a family gathering with older teens.
What's the hardest question in this set?
Which country has the most time zones. Most people say Russia, which has 11. France has 12, thanks to territories from French Polynesia to Réunion.
How should I score a hard trivia round for adults?
Without the options, give one point for the exact answer and half a point for a close one. It keeps teams in the game when the questions get hard.