Question: While there were two previous versions of this popular daytime game show, which aired in 1964 and 1978, it’s today’s version that premiered in1984.
Answer: “What is Jeopardy!?”
Here are some of the most difficult Jeopardy! questions we could find. How many can you answer?
Category: Foreign Colleges & Universities
Question: A university in the Netherlands is named for this Dutch humanist; a Brooklyn high school is called his “hall.”
Answer: “Who is Erasmus?”
Category: A Literary New Year
Question: New Year’s Eve finds 4 people contemplating suicide in “A Long Way Down,” by this man who also wrote, “About a Boy.”
Answer: “Who is Nick Hornby?”
Category: Rock Bands
Question: Bryan Ferry and mates reunited to play “Avalon” as this band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2019.
Answer: “Who is Roxy Music?”
Category: Places
Question: At the heart of a major industrial region, this 2nd most populous city lies near the geographic center of England.
Answer: “Where is Birmingham?”
Category: Potpourri
Question: Back in 1917 the President of Argentina announced an October 12 holiday called not Columbus Day but this “DIA.”
Answer: “What is Día de la Raza?”
Category: 3-Named People
Question: This Irish dramatist wrote, “A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it; it would be hell on Earth.”
Answer: “Who is George Bernard Shaw?”
Category: From The Greek
Question: The science of determining a tree’s age by looking at its growth rings.
Answer: “What Is Dendrochronology?”
Category: Birds in the Bible
Question: This tall flightless bird was supposedly uncaring about its own young, as in Job & Lamentations.
Answer: “What is an Ostrich?”
Category: The Age of Exploration
Question: A lake that forms the boundary between Vermont & New York bears the name of this explorer who visited in 1609.
Answer: “Who is Samuel de Champlain?”
Category: Soft Words
Question: In “Thus Spake Zarathrustra,” he wrote, “The voice of beauty speaks softly: it steals only into the most awakened souls.”
Answer: “Who Is Friedrich Nietzsche?”
Category: Think It Will Work?
Question: No: this man’s 1890s magnetic iron ore separator; he probably chalked up its failure to perspiration.
Answer: “Who is Thomas Edison?”
Category: Opera Zingers
Question: “You inconsiderate jade” is one of the nicer things said to Polly in this 1728 “opera” that inspired the 20th Century “Threepenny Opera.”
Answer: “What is “The Beggar’s Opera”?”
Category: Jump Around!
Question: You “gotta” do this slang term to mean you’re leaving; it’s also good to get one in the polls.
Answer: “What is bounce?”
Category: The Middle Ages
Question: One way to judge guilt was “trial by” this six-letter word, like putting the accused’s arm in boiling water.
Answer: “What is ordeal?”
Category: Potpourri
Question: If you know the correct procedure, you “know” this, also a tool.
Answer: “What is the drill?”
Category: Broadway Lyrics
Question: In a song from Chicago, we’re told to “give ‘em the old” this title, “give ‘em an act with lots of flash in it.”
Answer: “What is razzle dazzle?”
Category: TV Title Repairs
Question: Paul Michael Glaser & David Soul
Answer: “Who are Starsky & Hutch?”
Category: Van Gogh A-Go-Go
Question: One theory about Van Gogh’s odd behavior is poisoning from this liqueur made from wormwood.
Answer: “What is absinthe?”
Category: Who Wrote It?
Question: “We asked you to speak about women and fiction–what has that got to do with a room of one’s own?
Answer: “Who is Virginia Woolf?”
Category: Scrambled Harry Potter Characters
Question: A rival & nemesis: MY ALOOF CARD
Answer: “Who is Draco Malfoy?”
Category: Sports Nobility
Question: This controversial head coach led Indiana to 3 NCAA hoops titles & the U.S. to a gold medal in 1984.
Answer: “Who is Bobby Knight?”
Category: The Not So Vicious Circle
Question: 1989 film in which Keanu Reeves tells Alex Winter, “Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.”
Answer: “What is Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure?”
Category: Sci-Pourri
Question: The 3 most basic types of clouds are stratus, cumulus, and this high, wispy type with a name meaning “curl.”
Answer: “What is cirrus?”
Category: Time to Jazz-ercise
Question: This singer was homeless for the year before her big break, winning an amateur contest at The Apollo Theater in 1934.
Answer: Who is Ella Fitzgerald?
Category: World History
Question: This castle famous for its “stone” was built by Cormac MacCarthy about 1446.
Answer: “What is the Blarney?”
Category: Royalty
Question: Machiavelli was a big fan of this king of Aragon born in 1452.
Answer: “Who is Ferdinand?”
Category: Talkin’ Sports
Question: Your choice: do or don’t name this play in which the QB runs the ball & can choose to pitch it to another back.
Answer: “What is option play?”
Category: Canadian Cities
Question: In 1992, this city’s velodrome, once used in the Olympic Games, was transformed into an environmental biodome.
Answer: “What is Montreal?”
Category: We’re in Business
Question: American Airlines offers this, the oldest frequent flyer program.
Answer: “What is AA Advantage?”
Category: Authors
Question: In 1937 his sister said he had “hats of every description,” which he would use as a “foundation of his next book.”
Answer: “Who is Dr. Seuss?”
Category: World Leaders
Question: He came to power 34 days before FDR and left it 19 days after him.
Answer: “Who is Adolf Hitler?”
Category: Historical Figures
Question: A 2012 poll by Britain’s national army museum voted this man, born in 1732, as the nation’s greatest military enemy.
Answer: “Who is George Washington?”
Category: Sports Figures
Question: He was featured on the September 22, 1947 cover of Time with the caption “He and the boss took a chance.”
Answer: “Who is Jackie Robinson?”
Category: Wordplay
Question: Subtract a letter from the name of a keystroke found in computer commands and you get this violent reaction to social change.
Answer: “What is Backlash (from “backslash”)?”
Category: Coats of Arms
Question: This country’s coat of arms features a palm tree and a 19th-century American sailing ship.
Answer: “What is Liberia?”
Category: French Food History
Question: A popular product was born when Jean Naigeon of this city substituted the juice of unripe grapes for vinegar.
Answer: “What is Dijon?”
Category: Tony Nominations
Question: Although she has appeared in only 2 Broadway musicals, she got Tony nominations for both, for 1962 and 1964.
Answer: “Who is Barbara Streisand?”
Category: Inventions
Question: This machine was invented in 1929; the government began buying them to help prevent any more in a series of Army Air Corps fatalities.
Answer: “What is the flight simulator?”
Category: The U.S. Government
Question: On August 15, 1994, 59 years and 1 day after FDR signed the original act, Bill Clinton made this an independent agency.
Answer: “What is the Social Security Administration?”
Category: 21st Century Thought
Question: The title subject of a 2007 bestseller, it was discovered in Australia where today it’s a state emblem.
Answer: “What is the black swan?”
Category: The Oscars
Question: This Brit is the only actor to get Oscar nominations for playing two real-life U.S. Presidents, both for 1990s films.
Answer: “Who is Anthony Hopkins?”
Category: Hymns
Question: “A Christian hymn and a Jewish holiday hymn are both titled this, also the name of a 2009 Tony-nominated musical.”
Answer: “What is Rock of Ages?”
Category: Animals
Question: The elephant is the largest land animal by weight; this animal is 2nd.
Answer: “What is the rhino?”
Category:1990s Geography
Question: In area, it’s now the largest country whose boundaries are wholly within Europe.
Answer: “What is Ukraine?”
Category: Government & Economics
Question: Though a legal requirement in 49 states, it failed in the ‘90s as an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Answer: “What is the Balanced Budget Amendment?”
Category: Novel Characters
Question: This character from an 1851 novel “was intent on an audacious, immitigable, and supernatural revenge.”
Answer: “Who is Captain Ahab?”
Category: 21st Century Oscar Winners
Question: These 2 foreign-born directors have each won 2 Best Director Oscars, but none of their films has won Best Picture.
Answer: “Who are Ang Lee & Alfonso Cuaron?”
