Just Your Plain Old Adventure Trivia Quiz

Answer: ALAIN

Alain Delon is a French actor who has mostly been active from the late 1950s to the 1990s. In spite of an extensive filmography, he has never concentrated on acting alone but also manages several successful luxury brands, including perfume, watches, eyewear and fashion.

Answer: SLAIN

"Slain" is a synonym for "killed" and implies a significant degree of physical violence as opposed to, for example, a killing by poison. The word is often used in fantasy literature and sagas where it refers to heroic killing of superior, monstrous foes, such as a dragon.

Answer: STAIN

A stain is a blemish or discoloration on a surface, usually difficult to get rid of. A significant part of the detergent industry is dedicated to products claiming to be particularly good at removing stains. As a verb, stain can also mean a specific process of coloring, particularly for wood.

Answer: STEIN

"Stein" can mean different kinds of ceramic mug or chalice, but most typically the term is applied to large - at least a pint - mugs for beer. The word is borrowed from German where "Stein" means "stone" and was used to differentiate the ceramic mugs from glass ones.

Answer: STERN

If you don't want to be utterly ridiculed as a landlubber, you'll want to know at least the terms "bow" (front), "stern" (rear), "port" (left), "starboard" (right) and "head" (toilet) before setting foot on a ship. Be careful with the associated adjectives - while port and starboard can also be used as adjectives to identify the direction, you need "fore" and "aft" - "sternward" or "at the stern" is not proper usage.

Answer: STERE

Originally, a stere (from "stereos", meaning solid) was a general term for a cubic meter, but it is now only used for wood. If you buy a stere of wood, you can expect roughly cut material that is relatively densely packed, but it will still be stacked with some space. The most common type of wood sold in steres is firewood.

Answer: STARE

We've all been taught that it is impolite to stare, but that only applies to persons of course. Staring at your screen while trying to figure out the latest devious FunTrivia Brain Teaser or staring at a machine to find out why it does not work and how you could fix it are perfectly acceptable uses for wide open eyes intently scrutinizing their target.

Answer: SPARE

"Spare" is a word that can be used as an adjective, a noun and a verb, in each case implying a surplus of the commodity at hand with no immediate need to use it. Additionally, it can mean a bowling frame in which the player manages to clear all ten pins, but needs two balls to do so.

A spare scores ten points plus the result of the next ball only while a strike (clearing all ten pins with the first ball) will add the next two balls to the ten.

Answer: SPACE

Space can be used as an abstract concept (without an article), implying the three-dimensional extent of our existence (as opposed to time), the vacuum between stars and planets or just an indeterminate volume implied to be available for filling. Used in a concrete sense, with a, usually indefinite, article, it does represent a delineated volume (as in "my living space" or the blank area between words.)

Answer: SPICE

Spices, like herbs, are derived from plants, and are meant to add flavor, aroma, smell or color to food. The difference between herbs and spices is that herbs are derived from leaves, flowers or stems while any other plant part, especially fruits and roots, will result in a spice. Seasonings without a vegetable origin, such as salt, are not classified as spices. With many spices being of exotic origin or hard to grow and harvest, some of them still command considerable prices, although nowhere near what they were worth in earlier centuries - black pepper, for example, was once worth more than its weight in gold.