Ten-Dollar Words Online Quiz

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett. And Martha, I see that you’ve been wasting a lot of time with the Free Rice game again.

I have indeed. We received several emails about this site.

It’s called FreeRice.com, and that’s free as in gratis and rice as in grain.

It was started by a guy named John Green.

He lives in Bloomington, Indiana, and he’s a computer programmer who works with an anti-poverty organization.

And John noticed that his 15-year-old son was bored studying for his SATs,

so he combined both of those things into an online vocabulary quiz that’s underwritten by major advertisers.

And so for every answer you get right, those companies pay for one grain of rice to be donated to a United Nations food program.

And I have to say that the quiz is pretty darned addictive.

So, Grant, I thought that while we’re on the air, you and I could have a little rice-off between the two of us.

Aha.

How about that?

Let’s do it.

Okay, I’ll pick a word I saw on the site and ask you for the definition.

How about rampike?

R-A-M-P-I-K-E.

Does that mean A, standing dead tree, B, quicksilver, C, eyeglass, or D, custodian?

Rampike.

The tree.

How did you know?

I have no idea.

Pike is the clue, I guess.

Very good.

Because a pike is a pole, right?

Made out of wood?

Indeed.

Yes, a rain pike.

We’ll try this one.

I’m not quite sure of the pronunciation because they don’t give the pronunciations here,

but the word is anserine, I believe.

A-N-S-E-R-I-N-E.

Perhaps that’s anserine.

I don’t know.

But the three possible meanings are goose-like, contract annulment, hoofed, or a turntable.

It’s definitely goose-like.

Why is that?

It comes from the Latin for goose.

I knew that the lady who wrote the book about animal words would get that one.

That’s right.

I chose that one just for you, Martha.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I think it’s Answer Ryan because I used to run around making jokes about an answering machine,

but I believe it’s Answer Ryan.

And when it said, hello at the sound of the squawk, leave your message.

Well, you and I could do this all hour long.

In fact, we might do some more later on.

But that site again is FreeRice.com.

And if you’d like to get a bowl full of information from us about any aspect of language,

call us at 1-877-929-9673

or email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.