Synonym Trivia
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98 free Synonym trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Synonym trivia is the vocabulary round of a pub quiz: you are given a word and asked which of four options means the same thing. This quiz runs from everyday words like frugal, candid and feasible up to the ones that decide spelling bees and SAT scores: impecunious, taciturn, umbrage, magnanimous. Every question has exactly one true synonym among the four options; the distractors are usually an antonym and two unrelated words, so guessing is harder than it looks. Each explanation adds where the word came from. Laconic honours the famously terse Spartans of Laconia, candid comes from the Latin for white, exuberant began life describing an overflowing udder, and myriad was the Greek word for ten thousand. There are also a few questions on the thesaurus itself: Peter Mark Roget, the 1852 publication and what the word thesaurus originally meant. Every synonym was checked against the dictionary entry before publishing, and each question links to the source so you can look up the full list of related words.
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Q 01Which word is a synonym of "frugal"?
thrifty
Thrifty is the synonym: frugal comes from the Latin frugalis, from frux, fruit or produce; frugi, literally 'for fruit', was the Roman word for a useful, temperate person.
Q 02Which word is a synonym of "candid"?
frank
Frank is the synonym: candid comes from the Latin candidus, white, the same root as candidate, an office-seeker who once wore a whitened toga.
Q 03Which word is a synonym of "feasible"?
doable
Doable is the synonym: feasible descends from the Old French faisable, from faire, to do, so it literally means 'that can be done'.
Q 04Which word is a synonym of "tedious"?
monotonous
Monotonous is the synonym, and literally means 'of one tone', from the Greek monos, single, and tonos, tone; tedious itself comes from the Latin taedium, weariness.
Q 05Which word is a synonym of "tranquil"?
serene
Serene is the synonym: it comes from the Latin serenus, unclouded, a word for fair skies, while tranquil comes from tranquillus, calm or still.
Q 06Which word is a synonym of "obsolete"?
antiquated
Antiquated is the synonym: obsolete comes from the Latin obsolescere, to fall into disuse, perhaps built on solere, to be accustomed: what is obsolete has dropped out of custom.
Q 07Which word is a synonym of "arrogant"?
conceited
Conceited is the synonym: arrogant comes via Old French from the Latin arrogans, present participle of arrogare, to claim for oneself.
Q 08Which word is a synonym of "mundane"?
commonplace
Commonplace, banal, everyday; its older sense was simply 'worldly' as opposed to spiritual.
Q 09Which word is a synonym of "jubilant"?
elated
Elated is the synonym: jubilant comes from the Latin iubilare, to shout for joy; jubilee looks like a cousin but goes back to the Hebrew yobel, a ram's horn, reshaped by the Latin verb.
Q 10Which word is a synonym of "docile"?
submissive
Submissive is the synonym: docile comes from the Latin docilis, easily taught, from docere, to teach, the verb that also gives doctor, literally 'teacher'.
Q 11Which word is a synonym of "callous"?
heartless
Heartless is the synonym: callous comes from the Latin callosus, hard-skinned, from callum, hardened skin, the same root as a callus on the foot.
Q 12Which word is a synonym of "hostile"?
unfriendly
Unfriendly is the synonym: hostile comes from the Latin hostis, stranger or enemy, the same root as host in the old sense of an army.
Q 13Which word is a synonym of "abhor"?
loathe
Loathe is the synonym: abhor comes from the Latin abhorrere, to shrink back in horror, built on horrere, to bristle or shudder.
Which word is a synonym of "audacious"?
Q 21Which word is a synonym of "nefarious"?
wicked
Wicked is the synonym: nefarious comes from the Latin nefas, an act contrary to divine law, from ne, not, and fas, what religion permits.
Q 22Which word is a synonym of "zealous"?
fervent
Fervent is the synonym: zealous goes back to the Greek zelos, meaning both zeal and jealousy, which makes zealous a doublet of jealous.
Q 23Which word is a synonym of "morose"?
sullen
Sullen is the synonym: morose comes from the Latin morosus, peevish or wilful, from mos, custom or self-will, the same root as moral.
Which word is a synonym of "laconic"?
daring
Daring is the synonym: audacious comes from the Latin audax, bold, from audere, to dare, a verb that grew out of avidus, greedy, the word behind avid, so to dare was at first to crave.
Q 15Which word is a synonym of "belligerent"?
combative
Combative is the synonym: belligerent comes from the Latin belligerare, to wage war, from bellum, war, and gerere, to carry on; a treaty's belligerents are its warring parties.
Q 16Which word is a synonym of "arduous"?
strenuous
Strenuous is the synonym: arduous comes from the Latin arduus, high or steep, so an arduous task is by origin an uphill climb.
Q 17Which word is a synonym of "dearth"?
scarcity
Scarcity is the synonym: dearth probably comes from an unrecorded Old English noun built on dear in its old sense of costly, so it first meant high prices or famine.
Q 18Which word is a synonym of "ephemeral"?
fleeting
Fleeting is the synonym: ephemeral comes from the Greek ephemeros, lasting only a day, from epi and hemera, day; the mayfly order Ephemeroptera is named for the same reason.
Q 19Which word is a synonym of "hackneyed"?
trite
Trite is the synonym: a hackney was a horse, later a carriage, hired out for ordinary use, so anything worn out by overuse became hackneyed; hack for a jobbing writer shares the root.
Q 20Which word is a synonym of "meticulous"?
painstaking
Painstaking is the synonym: meticulous comes from the Latin metus, fear, and first meant timid; the idea of fearful, anxious care over details came later.
terse
Terse is the synonym: laconic comes from Laconia, the region ruled by Sparta, whose people were famous for their brevity of speech.
Q 25Which word is a synonym of "capricious"?
fickle
Fickle is the synonym: capricious comes via French and Italian from capriccio, a sudden whim, the same word that names the free-form musical capriccio.
Q 26Which word is a synonym of "clandestine"?
covert
Covert is the synonym: clandestine comes from the Latin clam, secretly, with an ending probably copied from intestinus, internal, the word behind intestine.
Q 27Which word is a synonym of "garrulous"?
talkative
Talkative is the synonym: garrulous comes from the Latin garrire, to chatter, which is why the noisy jays were given the genus name Garrulus.
Q 28Which word is a synonym of "placid"?
even-tempered
Even-tempered is the synonym: placid comes from the Latin placidus, peaceful, kin to placere, to please; a placebo, Latin for 'I shall please', got its medical name as a medicine given simply to please the patient.
Q 29Which word is a synonym of "obstinate"?
stubborn
Stubborn is the synonym: obstinate comes from the Latin obstinare, to persist, built on a form of stare, to stand, so the obstinate are by origin people standing their ground.
Q 30Which word is a synonym of "insipid"?
bland
Bland is the synonym: insipid comes from the Latin in, not, and sapidus, tasty, from sapere, to taste; the same verb also meant to be wise and gives the sapiens in Homo sapiens.