FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Quiz about Words Too Easily Confused Set Eight
Quiz about Words Too Easily Confused Set Eight

Words Too Easily Confused, Set Eight Quiz


Some English words are entirely too much like others, while having completely different meanings. How many of these too-similar words can you properly sort?

A matching quiz by FatherSteve. Estimated time: 3 mins.
  1. Home
  2. »
  3. Quizzes
  4. »
  5. Humanities Trivia
  6. »
  7. Definitions
  8. »
  9. Easily Confused

Author
FatherSteve
Time
3 mins
Type
Match Quiz
Quiz #
384,216
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Very Easy
Avg Score
9 / 10
Plays
1407
Awards
Top 20% Quiz
Last 3 plays: Guest 107 (10/10), Guest 72 (3/10), catscradle65 (10/10).
(a) Drag-and-drop from the right to the left, or (b) click on a right side answer box and then on a left side box to move it.
QuestionsChoices
1. Prone to anger easily   
  Irrigate
2. Showing colour opalescently  
  Iridium
3. A 2nd Century bishop   
  Irascible
4. Expose to radiation  
  Iridescent
5. Without a good reason  
  Irrational
6. Surgical removal of part of the iris  
  Irradiate
7. A hard dense metallic element  
  Iridectomy
8. To supply or deliver water   
  Irenaeus
9. Conducive to or promoting peace   
  Irenic
10. A principal river in Burma (Myanmar)  
  Irrawaddy





Select each answer

1. Prone to anger easily
2. Showing colour opalescently
3. A 2nd Century bishop
4. Expose to radiation
5. Without a good reason
6. Surgical removal of part of the iris
7. A hard dense metallic element
8. To supply or deliver water
9. Conducive to or promoting peace
10. A principal river in Burma (Myanmar)

Most Recent Scores
Today : Guest 107: 10/10
Today : Guest 72: 3/10
Mar 17 2024 : catscradle65: 10/10
Mar 09 2024 : 4wally: 10/10
Mar 08 2024 : psnz: 10/10
Mar 02 2024 : Guest 78: 0/10
Feb 08 2024 : ubermom: 10/10
Feb 05 2024 : demurechicky: 8/10

Score Distribution

quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Prone to anger easily

Answer: Irascible

"I have never known anyone worth a damn who wasn't irascible." ~Ezra Pound.

The adjective "irascible" entered English from the Old French in the 14th Century. The French derived it from the Late Latin "irascibilis" which was built upon the Latin "irasci" meaning to be angry. Compare the use of "ire" for anger in Modern English. Think of irascible as being more fierce than irritable.
2. Showing colour opalescently

Answer: Iridescent

"Some of us get dipped in flat, some in satin, some in gloss.... But every once in a while, you find someone who's iridescent, and when you do, nothing will ever compare." ~Wendelin Van Draanen, "Flipped."

The adjective "iridescent" comes from the Latin "iridis" meaning rainbow, thus its plain meaning is "rainbow-coloured."
3. A 2nd Century bishop

Answer: Irenaeus

"Among them too Irenaeus, writing in the name of the Christians whose leader he was in Gaul, ... recommends that the mystery of the Lord's resurrection be observed only on the Lord's day... " ~Eusebius, "The Ecclesiastical Histories."

Irenaeus was the Bishop of Lugdunum in the Roman Province of Gaul which is modern-day Lyon in France.

The name Irenaeus is a Latinized form of the Greek name "Eirenaios" which means "peaceful."
4. Expose to radiation

Answer: Irradiate

"A food irradiator ... is as different from a nuclear reactor as a flashlight battery is from an electric generating plant." ~ Robert Wolke, "What Einstein Told His Cook."

The verb "irradiate" has many meanings: to shed light upon, to bring to spiritual or intellectual awareness, to heat with radiant energy, or to bombard with radiation as in food preservation.
5. Without a good reason

Answer: Irrational

"There's no evidence whatsoever that men are more rational than women. Both sexes seem to be equally irrational." ~Albert Ellis.

The adjective "irrational" dates, in English, from the 15th Century. It is a combination of the Latin prefix "in-" meaning "not, without, the opposite of" and the Latin "rationalis" meaning "reasonable, calculated, grounded."
6. Surgical removal of part of the iris

Answer: Iridectomy

"About 60% of patients who have had conventional iridectomies consider the operation a success; 15%, on the other hand, maintain that their vision was better before the procedure. Fortunately for patients, melanoma of the iris is a relatively slow-growing form of cancer; it metastasizes to the liver in only 2-4% of cases. If treated promptly, it has a high survival rate of 95-97% after five years." ~ The Encyclopedia of Surgery, © 2016 Merriam-Webster.

The base noun "iri" is a shortened form of "iris" which it the Latin word for the coloured diaphragm around the pupil of the eye. "-ectomy" is a Latin suffix meaning "surgical removal." This came from the older Greek "eltemnein" which means "to cut out."
7. A hard dense metallic element

Answer: Iridium

"The first impact tracer linked to a severe mass extinction was an unearthly concentration of iridium, an element that is rare in rocks on our planet's surface but abundant in many meteorites." ~Luann Becker, "Repeated Blows" Scientific American, March 2002, p. 78.

Iridium, a metallic element (Ir) with an atomic number of 77, is the second densest element and the most corrosion-resistant. It was discovered in 1803 and named "iridium" by Smithson Tennant, the discoverer, after the Greek goddess Iris, who is a messenger to the gods and the goddess of the rainbow.
8. To supply or deliver water

Answer: Irrigate

"Someday men will learn to irrigate and spread fertilizer instead of praying for fertility." ~ Warren Eyster, "The Goblins of Eros."

The English verb "irrigate" derives from the Latin "irrigatus" which has several meanings: "to water, to flood, to refresh." It has been used since the middle of the 15th Century.
9. Conducive to or promoting peace

Answer: Irenic

"An irenic approach to expounding Christian beliefs is one that attempts always to understand opposing viewpoints before disagreeing, and when it is necessary to disagree does so respectfully and in love." ~ Roger E. Olson, "The Mosaic of Christian Belief: Twenty Centuries of Unity & Diversity."

The adjective "irenic" derives from the Greek "eirenikos" meaning peace or peacetime and has appeared in English since the mid-17th Century.
10. A principal river in Burma (Myanmar)

Answer: Irrawaddy

"We took our chanst among the Khyber 'ills,
The Boers knocked us silly at a mile,
The Burman give us Irriwaddy chills,
An' a Zulu 'impi' dished us up in style."
~Rudyard Kipling, "Fuzzy Wuzzy"

The Irrawaddy River or Ayeyarwady River or Ayeyarwaddy River was named by the Burmese who derived the name from the name of another river in another language called Pali.
Source: Author FatherSteve

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor ponycargirl before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
Related Quizzes
This quiz is part of series Words Too Easily Confused:

There are many English words which are devilishly similar but unrelated in meaning. These quizzes are an opportunity to sort some of those out.

  1. Words Too Easily Confused Easier
  2. Words Too Easily Confused, Set Two Easier
  3. Words Too Easily Confused, Set Three Very Easy
  4. Words Too Easily Confused, Set Four Very Easy
  5. Words Too Easily Confused, Set Five Easier
  6. Words Too Easily Confused, Set Six Very Easy
  7. Words Too Easily Confused, Set Seven Easier
  8. Words Too Easily Confused, Set Eight Very Easy
  9. Words Too Easily Confused, Set Nine Easier
  10. Words Too Easily Confused, Set Ten Easier
  11. Words Too Easily Confused, Set Eleven Easier

3/18/2024, Copyright 2024 FunTrivia, Inc. - Report an Error / Contact Us