As Rossian just mentioned, I got it (wrong) too:

blinker is related to light source

You said: lamp

blinker means "a light that flashes on and off"
light source means "any device serving as a source of illumination"

photoflash is related to lamp

You said: light source

photoflash means "a lamp for providing momentary light to take a photograph"
lamp means "an artificial source of visible illumination"


Mark

Just lucky!

Here are two very close matches in my set (15) today:

yobbo is related to aggressor

yobbo means "a cruel and brutal fellow"
aggressor means "someone who attacks"


brawler is related to scrapper

brawler means "a fighter (especially one who participates in brawls)"
scrapper means "someone who fights (or is fighting)"

Luckily, I got them right, but there really was no better match in my opinion.

Just getting a little teed off with this game another pair of synonyms screwed me again in set 11. I'm not even going to bother mentioning them as it is pointless.

I think the point of the thread is to put these problems to people's attention - if you don't mention them, they will never get fixed. I don't know if anyone actually directly fixes all the problems brought up in this thread, but certainly if you don't mention them, nothing will be done about them.

I second reeshy's opinion. If you want something altered, please say so.

I've found an entry that has become stale very recently.

Estonian currency unit is linked to sent.

This was adequate until January 1, 2011, when Estonia joined the eurozone. The Kroon and its divisions have circulated only until January 14, 2011.

There's a typo is today's Set 13 Relationships section ...

The word given is 'decentalisation' although what's meant is clearly 'decentralisation'.

Guess who pulled the wrong rein...

Just wondering about this one.

jogging is running at a jog trot as a form of cardiopulmonary exercise

Should a form of the correct word be in the definition?

definition of "phrenic" = adjective: of or relating to the diaphragm ("Phrenic nerve")

We have alot of veins in our body. But the superior and inferior vena cavae specifically refer to the heart.

The "operative" word(part) here that would differentiate the two possibilities is "phrenic".

If the defintion the game gave you for Phrenic Vein said that the correct answer was related to vena (assuming there were other choices), then that would indeed appear to be wrong.

However, in THIS example, the "correct" answer given is valid (in that it was answered incorrectly):
musculophrenic vein is related to venous blood vessel
You said: vena
musculophrenic vein means "veins that drain the upper abdominal wall and the lower intercostal spaces and the abdomen"
venous blood vessel means "a blood vessel that carries blood from the capillaries toward the heart"

amalgamate is related to alter

You said: change

amalgamate means "to bring or combine together or with something else"
alter means "cause to change"




mellow out is related to change

You said: alter

mellow out means "become more relaxed, easygoing, or genial"
change means "undergo a change"

Jakeroo, "vena" simply means "vein", and there are many other veins in the body that use the word "vena" - in fact, all the technical terms for veins would use vena, e.g. "vena phrenica" for "phrenic vein". It's not at all incorrect to use "vena" for any vein - it is not just for the venae cavae.

This one is quite stale.

Tical is related to Thai monetary unit.

The Thai monetary unit is the baht, and was called tical only up to 1925.
The word "former" Thai monetary unit would be appropriate.

Reeshy: you might note that I stated the "operative" part of the question was the word part "phrenic". I did NOT say that the word "vena" might not be confused for many other things lol.

Jan et al: Actually, there is nothing wrong with any of the questions that refer to "former" uses of whatever words, including currency. After all, they do NOT state "the CURRENT monetary unit of x country", the definition is "RELATED TO". This is entirely correct.

I don't see anyone demanding that for the word "centurion" for instance, that the definition should read "FORMER military unit of Rome". Words in the dictionary are valid, whatever their historical context.

In the specific case of "tical", the ONLY other possible answers that could have been listed are "historical site in South America, alternative spelling" or "debut album released by an American rapper". I presume neither was an alternative choice regarding this particular question. If so, then THAT would be an unfair question, but only if the alternative choice appeared in the same question as the definition "related to Thai monetary unit".

But the two options that contained the word "phrenic" were on the left hand side, and the two on the right hand side both meant "vein". Each of the two choices were directly equivalent, no matter if they had "phrenic" in them or not. Also, I was confused as to why you mentioned the venae cavae. If the definition for phrenic vein mentioned it was related to vena, that's correct.

Richard

If you got the question wrong, reeshy, I am sorry. It happens to all of us : )

I didn't get the question wrong; I've never even had the question. I was just confused as to why you were saying what I quoted in my last post. But I'll leave it just now and allow the thread to get back on track!

Reeshy: My original post cannot be construed as being off-track, as it was in reply to another post (not yours, sorry). I'm also sorry to have confused you. My fault.

General public:

While I think it's certainly okay to laugh at oneself (and comment here) when we get a q marked wrong (oh, the horror!), it's not okay to blame the game. I'd say approximately 5% of the complaints about "very similar" questions/answers are completely valid. And yes, they should be mentioned.

In almost every other "case" posted to date, there is rarely an EQUALLY likely answer given amongst the list of choices. Certain words can have 15 or so different meanings. Are they ALL listed in the choices? Nope. So no need to mention them.

Approximately another 10 - 15% are obvious typos. Yes, these ARE errors. But again, you can't blame the funtrivia game for this, nor do I think those instances can be fixed easily. I suspect that the words/definitions used are taken from other online databases. The owners of THOSE links are to be blamed for not being diligent. Despite the fact that Terry is indeed "god-like", he doesn't have control over what other site owners do. Nor does he have the time to write an entire "funtrivia" dictionary, despite how wonderful a concept that might be. He has a hard enough time getting people to sign up for a measly $35 per YEAR and you want him to write a book of 500,000+ words for FREE?

But personal "opinion" about words (especially when it is obvious the person didn't bother researching first) are a waste of keyboard effort. I'll go along with someone's personal OPINION about a definition at exactly the same time they produce a dictionary under their own name that sells at least 200,000 copies lol. In the meantime, I'll rely on already published/accepted sources.

The remaining percentage appear to be people trying to turn a single snowflake into a polar ice cap.

No game is perfect and the very slight imperfections in this one don't seem to be "fixable", other than how the program selects the definition.

I love this game as it shows me new ways to look at things. I don't always score well, but that's MY problem lol.
________________________________________________

When I was 18 I thought I knew everything. By the time I finished University, I realised I knew many irrelevant things about very little. I'm 55 now and I humbly realise that I know next to nothing. In another 10 years I can only hope to have the mental capacity I had at age 8 (when independent thought and common sense outweighed "political correctness" and "reinforcement of personal ego/opinion/preferences despite being completely wrong").

Apparently the word "husband" can have several meanings beside the obvious one. But I never dreamt the word "husband" was related somehow to the word "waste"...

Before the hubbies get angry: the word "husband" is the opposite of "waste". Now where does this leave the wives?

Wasted?

LOL Ren, good one!

The verb "to husband" (as in animal/farm husbandry) is to manage resources/belongings in an efficient manner. So yes, wasting those resources through mismanagement would be the antonym, archaic as it may sound to some.

Where does that leave the wives? As "non-persons", historically/etymologically-wise. Until very recently in "the big picture", wives were considered as "belongings" (chattel, really), which is probably why there is no "wifery" word that correlates with the word "husbandry".

These days, women are of course allowed to get degrees in Animal Husbandry (in some locations it is also offered as part of veterinary courses). I'm sure that eventually a group of "PC" advocates will get this changed to Non-Humanoid Personry instead LOL

Today's Mind Melt (Set 11):

______________________________________________________
short is related to tract

short means "the location on a baseball field where the shortstop is stationed"
tract means "an extended area of land"
______________________________________________________

Mmmm! A bit tenuous (put mildly).



(Apologies if someone reading this hasn't done Mind Melt yet and comes across this set.)

I had this - and got it wrong!

I got a classic one today:

The opposite of front is rear

You said: back

front means "the side that is seen or that goes first"
rear means "the side that goes last or is not normally seen"

The opposite of frontward is back

You said: rear

frontward means "at or to or toward the front"
back means "at or to or toward the back or rear"