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Fun with Words!

Do you know an anagram from a palindrome? Take our word-play challenge and find out!

1. In what grammatical device is Hamrag speaking, in this Monty Python skit?

   Presenter: Do you enjoy this?

   Hamrag Yatlerot: I stom certainly od. Revy chum so.

   Presenter: And what is your name?

   Hamrag Yatlerot: Hamrag, Hamrag Yatlerot.

   Presenter: Well, Graham, nice to have you on the show. Now where do you come from?

   Hamrag Yatlerot: Bumcreland.

   Presenter: Cumberland?

   Hamrag Yatlerot: Staht sit sepreicly.

   • Oxymorons
   • Acrostics
   • Anagrams
   • Pallindromes

   Anagrams

   An anagram is a word made from the transposition of letters in another word.

2. What device is Charles Dickens using in his opening for A Tale of Two Cities?
   It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity.
   
   • Anacrusis
   • Alliteration
   • Apposition
   • Anaphora

   Anaphora

   An anaphora is a rhetorical device in which a word or sequence of words is repeated, in order to lend emphasis to a statement.

3. Alice’s confusion is due to what grammatical device?
   “Mine is a long and sad tale!” said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing.
   
   “It is a long tail, certainly,” said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse’s tail; “but why do you call it sad?”
   
   (Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
   
   • Homophone
   • Synonym
   • Homograph
   • Simile

   Homophone

   Homophones are two words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings; homographs are two words that are spelled the same but have different meanings, such as “bow your head” and “tie a bow.”

4. What figure of speech is Shakespeare repeatedly using in this soliloquy from Romeo and Juliet?
   O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!
   
   Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
   
   Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
   
   • Antonym
   • Paradox
   • Oxymoron
   • Hyperbole

   Oxymoron

   An oxymoron is a combination of two words that, either coincidentally or deliberately, imply each others’ opposite.

5. British wordplay expert Leigh Mercer published his now-legendary article “A Man, a Plan, a Canal—Panama!” in the November 13, 1948, issue of the Guardian’s Notes & Queries section. What device did he use for that title?
   • Pallindrome
   • Homonym
   • Anagram
   • Alliteration

   Pallindrome

   A pallindrome is a word or string of words that is spelled the same backward and forward.

6. Batman’s socks to the kisser are examples of what figure of speech?
   • Polysyndeton
   • Onomatopoeia
   • Metaphor
   • Malapropism

   Onomatopoeia

   An onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like or suggests the sound it is describing.

7. In what form is this Edgar Allan Poe poem written?
   Elizabeth it is in vain you say
   
   “Love not”—thou sayest it in so sweet a way:
   
   In vain those words from thee or L.E.L.
   
   Zantippe’s talents had enforced so well:
   
   Ah! if that language from thy heart arise,
   
   Breathe it less gently forth—and veil thine eyes.
   
   Endymion, recollect, when Luna tried
   
   To cure his love—was cured of all beside—
   
   His folly—pride—and passion—for he died.
   
   • Mnemonic
   • Phyrric
   • Anachronistic
   • Acrostic

   Acrostic

   Acrostic is a form of writing in which the first letter, syllable, or word of each line spell out another word or phrase—in this case, Poe’s poem (simply titled “An Acrostic”) spells out the love for whom it was written.

8. “The Lord is a shoving leopard” and “The Kinquering Congs Their Titles Take” are two of the most famous examples of what type of slip-of-the-tongue term?
   • Aphorism
   • Spoonerism
   • Euphemism
   • Freudian slip

   Spoonerism

   A Spoonerism, an error in speech in which corresponding syllables are switched between words, is named after Reverend William Archibald Spooner, who was prone to these types of slips of the tongue.

9. “’Scuse me, while I kiss this guy” (Jimi Hendrix, “Purple Haze”) and “The girl with colitis goes by” (The Beatles, “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”) are two famously misheard lyrics. What are these called?
   • Malapropisms
   • Holorimes
   • Mondegreens
   • Backronyms

   Mondegreens

   The term “Mondegreen” was coined by writer Sylvia Wright in her essay “The Death of Lady Mondegreen.” In it she describes how, as a girl, she misheard the last stanza of the 17th-century ballad, “The Bonny Early of O’Moray.” She heard:
   
   “They hae slain the Earl O’Moray,
   
   And Lady Mondegreen.”
   
   The last line was actually “And laid him on the green.” Since no one had thought up a term for this kind of error, Wright came up with the term “Mondegreen.”

10. Raymond Chandler was famous for using this type of figure of speech. What is it?
    “I got back to the living room Ohls had the boy up on his feet. The boy stood glaring at him with sharp black eyes in a face as hard and white as cold mutton fat.”—The Big Sleep
    
    • Simile
    • Pangram
    • Hyperbole
    • Metaphor

    Metaphor

    A metaphor describes a person or subject by comparing it to an otherwise unrelated subject.