It's useful to remember that this game doesn't make up the definition on-site - they are taken from an online dictionary or database. And, unfortunately, sometimes that dictionary has definitions that are actually incorrect, or at least a bit askew. Nevertheless, there is really nothing constructive to do except to learn the 'wrong' definition so you will recognise it again in the future. As a bonus, you will also meet them in Mind Melt.

Same here! Following your mention of it I had a google around and see that several sites link it to a 17th century use where a tailor would "cabbage" the bits of leftover material from a job and use them to make something else. Technically the material belonged to the customer so the tailor would technically be stealing.



lol ASA! I have often laughed at that one too.

"track star is related to wizard"

Because Gandalf is just like Jesse Owens.

Riiiight.

So, is our word Cab (for taxi) derived from being taken for a ride?

One definition of wizard: someone who is dazzlingly skilled in any field.

I am an English teacher in the US. I know we all have our differences, and I appreciate that we can laugh at them. WW tickles me no end many days.

The site of the World Trade Center before it was destroyed

Your answer: ground zero

This is terrible grammer - the site of the World Trade Centre BEFORE it was destroyed is the World Trade Centre.

Ground Zero is the Site of the World Trade Cente AFTER it was destroyed

2. Make a rattling sound
Your answer: rattle

rattle means "make short successive sounds"

The correct answer was brattle

I think I have a good case to argue here. I was robbed. (At least I got my letter.)

I had the same set and totally agree. I understand both words are correct answers but I thought I was playing Word Wizzard not Obscurity.

I just got this one:

14. A metrical unit with unstressed-unstressed syllables

Your answer: pyrrhic

I got it right because I knew that it was none of the other answers, BUT I do not understand the answer. I looked it up online and in a paper dictionary, but am still none the wiser.

Can someone please un-confuse me?

It's in Webster's online dictionary:

"a metrical foot consisting of two short or unaccented syllables"

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pyrrhic

I assume that is a foot as in poetry, not a foot as in inches and yards.

Yes, I found that and do not get it

Poetry is broken up into segments called feet, with characteristic rhythms or stress patterns. An iamb, for example, is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one (think Shakespeare's usual rhythm pattern of iambic pentameter, or lines with five feet each containing an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one); a dactyl is a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones (my high school teacher told us that the Iliad was written in dactylic hexameter, and that was the rhythmic pattern used in the translation we read; Iliad is an example of a dactyl). Similarly, if a section has two unstressed syllables, it is called a pyhrric foot. A spondee has two stressed syllables, and there are a number of other common patterns, each of which is given a name to describe it.

Thank you

Could you give me an example of "... two unstressed syllables, it is called a pyhrric foot"? because that is the part that I cannot get onboard

Here's an explanation with an example. It should be noted that it is a very rare metrical pattern, and some would prefer to analyse the poetic line so as to avoid its use. Scansion is an art, not a science. The example given is pyhrric/spondee, which could equally be called ionic (unstressed, unstressed, stressed, stressed). It could also be scanned as unstressed, unstressed, stressed / stressed, unstressed, unstressed / stressed, stressed - anapest/dactyl/spondee.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhic

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/metrical+foot

Thank you very much, I think that I get it now. It looks to me like two filler words thrown in to add needed length to a line in a poem and unimportant in any other sense in the poem!

I'm glad that Looney didn't quote any of my epic verses as an example of words thrown in any which way or she might have found herself with a starring role in the next Llamas Christmas Poem.

8. Inability to perceive written words
Your answer: dyslexia

dyslexia means "impaired ability to learn to read"

The correct answer was visual aphasia

Really? I had trouble reading that one...or was it an inability to perceive the written words.

Dyslexia means an impaired ability to perceive words, while aphasia (also sometimes called alexia) refers to a complete lack of the ability.

Inability, impaired ability, complete lack of ability...Maybe if they had offered your two definitions, I would have been able to read and perceive the words.

Got this one in reverse. Are these being attended to? Just asking.
15. The emblem of Canada
Your answer: maple-leaf

No, corrections like that are not being attended to, as they are in the source dictionary (which is not here at FunTrivia). Terry can, and has, filtered out a lot of material that is unacceptable for one reason or another, but the database itself is just out there. Unless you can figure out which one it is, and get the corrections made there!

Haha, this has never happened to me before. 3 times the same question in Word Wizard (I mean it happens in the Expert and the Easy Game quite often, but it's not that usual in WW, is it?)

5. A crime that undermines the offender's government

Your answer: treason

9. An act of deliberate betrayal

Your answer: treason

15. A crime that undermines the offender's government

Your answer: high treason

Is subsidence gradual sinking or sudden collapse? Both were correct answers.

2. Subsidence
Your answer: a gradual sinking to a lower level

3. Subsidence
Your answer: the sudden collapse of something into a hollow beneath it

It can be either, it just has to involve downward movement. In this game, you won't find both of those options on offer and need to choose between them.

I think the wording here was cut short and produced an incorrect definition.

13. Cradle
Your answer: run with the stick

This is from dictionary.com in reference to lacrosse.
19. lacrosse - to keep (the ball) in the net of the stick, esp while running with it.

The intent is that you are holding the ball. Running with it is secondary. In either case, it should mention ball.

Another chop job which makes the definition wrong.

Involution - correct answer is raising a number to a specified power

But from dictionary.com
Compare evolution an algebraic operation in which a number, variable, expression etc, is raised to a specified power
Compare involution an algebraic operation in which the root of a number, expression, etc, is extracted

Extracting a root is mathematically equivalent to raising the number to a fractional power (square root is the power of 1/2, cube root is the power of 1/3, etc.) so involution and evolution could both be described as raising the number to a specified power.

edited to clarify wording and fix typo

So you're saying that evolution = involution? To a non-math person at this level, they look like the opposite of each other. I'm sure many others would be happy if they used the actual dictionary definition when it becomes this technical. It's hard enough without reversing definitions to make it impossible.
I see it as taking the second half of the 'compare' entry under involution, word for word. This makes it a bad match, similar to my previous post.