130 General Knowledge Questions (and Answers) to Prove How Smart You Really Are
How much do you know about the world around you?
Whether you're passing the time with friends or preparing for a pub quiz, it never hurts to expand your mental inventory of fascinating facts. If you feel like your supply is starting to run low, then you're in luck. We've compiled a varied list of general knowledge questions and answers for you to study up on. We've also organized these trivia items based on subject and difficulty, so you can either start slow or dive right into the more challenging material. Read on to test how much you really know.
RELATED: 120 Fun Trivia Questions for Kids (With Answers)!
Easy General Knowledge Questions
- Question: In what galaxy is our solar system located?
Answer: The Milky Way - Question: Red, yellow, and blue are examples of what?
Answer: Primary colors - Question: What type of gas is absorbed by plants?
Answer: Carbon dioxide - Question: What's the primary ingredient in hummus?
Answer: Chickpeas - Question: Which planet is known as the "Red Planet"?
Answer: Mars - Question: Who is most often credited with inventing electricity?
Answer: Benjamin Franklin - Question: Anti-clockwise moves in which direction?
Answer: Left - Question: What is the shortest month of the year?
Answer: February - Question: The sun rises in the…
Answer: East - Question: How many years are in a millennia?
Answer: 1,000 - Question: What is the world's smallest continent?
Answer: Australia - Question: Who is known as the "Father of Modern Physics"?
Answer: Albert Einstein - Question: In what year did the Titanic sink?
Answer: 1912 - Question: Where does the majority of Earth's energy come from?
Answer: The sun - Question: What year was the very first model of the iPhone released?
Answer: 2007
RELATED: 125 Facts That Will Make You Feel Instantly Smarter.
Funny General Knowledge Questions
- Question: What animal did Australian soldiers have to fight back in 1932?
Answer: The emu - Question: What household item was originally called the "Whirlwind"?
Answer: The vacuum - Question: In what country is it illegal to own a single guinea pig because they tend to get lonely?
Answer: Switzerland - Question: Women were forbidden from wearing what in 19th-century Florence?
Answer: Buttons - Question: It's illegal for anyone who is not a magician to own one of these in Queensland, Australia.
Answer: A rabbit - Question: What was the first patented service uniform in the U.S.?
Answer: The Playboy Bunny - Question: How do you say entrance" and "driveway" in Swedish, respectively?
Answer: "Infart" and "uppfart" - Question: What is a group of unicorns called?
Answer: A blessing - Question: In Georgia, it's illegal to eat what with a fork?
Answer: Fried chicken - Question: What color is an airplane's "black box," really?
Answer: Orange - Question: Coprastastaphobia is the fear of what?
Answer: Constipation - Question: In which U.S. state is it illegal to swear in front of a corpse?
Answer: Texas - Question: What is a Gambrinus?
Answer: The symbol and personification of beer - Question: What country has been put up for sale online—multiple times?
Answer: New Zealand - Question: Who claimed he could "drive away the devil with a fart?"
Answer: Martin Luther
RELATED: 53 Heartwarming Facts That Will Instantly Make You Smile.
Hard General Knowledge Questions
- Question: What is the national bird of India?
Answer: The peacock - Question: In 2006, the International Astronomical Union reclassified this planet.
Answer: Pluto - Question: Who holds the record for the most Grand Slam titles in women's tennis?
Answer: Margaret Court - Question: What festival is called the Festival of Colors?
Answer: Holi - Question: What two cities represent letters in the phonetic alphabet?
Answer: Lima and Quebec - Question: What language contains the most words?
Answer: English - Question: In what month does Russia celebrate the October Revolution?
Answer: November - Question: What does the word "matrix" mean in the Bible?
Answer: Womb - Question: What country is the kiwi fruit native to?
Answer: China - Question: What is the main ingredient of Bombay Duck?
Answer: Fish - Question: What website did Mark Zuckerberg create before Facebook that allowed users to compare the attractiveness of two people side by side?
Answer: Facemash - Question: What is the common name for enuresis?
Answer: Bedwetting - Question: Who discovered penicillin?
Answer: Alexander Fleming - Question: What were clocks missing before 1577?
Answer: Minute hands - Question: What is the chemical symbol for the element mercury?
Answer: Hg
RELATED: 54 Hilarious and Random Facts You'll Want to Tell Your Friends.
General Trivia About Sports
- Question: Which country won the most medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics?
Answer: The U.S. - Question: In which country was the sport of curling invented?
Answer: Scotland - Question: Which country won the first FIFA World Cup back in 1930?
Answer: Uruguay - Question: Which boxer has been nicknamed "The Greatest" and "The People's Champion"?
Answer: Muhammad Ali - Question: Which country invented table tennis?
Answer: England - Question: How many NBA Championships did Michael Jordan win while playing for the Chicago Bulls?
Answer: Six - Question: What sport has been played on the moon?
Answer: Golf - Question: In what year was the first-ever Wimbledon Championship held?
Answer: 1877 - Question: How many players are there on a rugby league team?
Answer: 13 players - Question: What is the national sport of Japan?
Answer: Sumo wrestling
RELATED: 55 Fascinating World Facts You Need to Know.
General Knowledge Questions About Film and Art
- Question: Which Indiana Jones movie was released back in 1984?
Answer: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - Question: Who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the 2020 film Joker?
Answer: Joaquin Phoenix - Question: The Hunger Games series was written by which author?
Answer: Suzanne Collins - Question: What is the name of the fourth book in the Harry Potter series?
Answer: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Question: Who is the writer of The Merchant of Venice?
Answer: William Shakespeare - Question: Anna Pavlova was famous for performing this dance form.
Answer: Ballet - Question: Which artist is most famous for their close-up perspective paintings of flowers?
Answer: Georgia O'Keeffe - Question: Who designed the Guggenheim Museum?
Answer: Frank Lloyd Wright - Question: Who is considered the father of European abstract art?
Answer: Wassily Kandinsky - Question: What 1927 movie musical was the first "talkie"?
Answer: The Jazz Singer - Question: Who was the first person of color to win an Oscar?
Answer: Hattie McDaniel - Question: Which animated film features a character named Timon?
Answer The Lion King - Question: The Dutch painter Rembrandt lived during which century?
Answer: 17th - Question: Which of Picasso's famous paintings was inspired by the bombings of civilians during the Spanish Civil War?
Answer: Guernica - Question: Who painted the Mona Lisa?
Answer: Leonardo da Vinci
RELATED: 35 Disney Facts That Will Bring Out Your Inner Kid.
General Knowledge Trivia Questions About the Human Body
- Question: When people are frightened, their ears produce more of what?
Answer: Earwax - Question: What is the space between your nostrils called?
Answer: The columella - Question: How long is the small intestine?
Answer: Seven meters - Question: What is the smallest bone in the human body?
Answer: The stapes, located in the middle ear - Question: How many bones do babies have when they are born?
Answer: 300 - Question: What is the rarest blood type in humans?
Answer: AB negative - Question: What is the body's most flexible and movable joint?
Answer: The shoulder joint - Question: Who has more hair follicles: blondes or brunettes?
Answer: Blondes - Question: How much salt does the average human body contain?
Answer: 250 grams - Question: What's the longest bone in the body?
Answer: The femur - Question: How many muscles does it take to smile?
Answer: 13 - Question: Which part of the brain is responsible for balance and coordination?
Answer: The cerebellum - Question: How many chambers does the human heart have?
Answer: Four - Question: What is the hardest substance in the human body?
Answer: Tooth enamel - Question: True or false: If you go into space, you get taller.
Answer: True—the cartilage disks in your spine expand due to the lack of gravity
RELATED: 37 Weird Facts About the Human Body That Will Blow Your Mind.
General Geography Trivia
- Question: What is the capital city of Australia?
Answer: Canberra - Question: On which continent is the Amazon Rainforest located?
Answer: South America - Question: Which two countries share the longest international border?
Answer: Canada and the U.S. - Question: What is the largest desert in the world?
Answer: The Sahara Desert - Question: Name the country known as the Land of the Rising Sun.
Answer: Japan - Question: Which river runs through the Grand Canyon?
Answer: Colorado River - Question: What is the largest country in the world (by area)?
Answer: Russia - Question: What is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea?
Answer: Sicily - Question: What is the name of the longest river in the world?
Answer: The Nile - Question: What is the world's longest continental mountain range?
Answer: The Andes - Question: What is the smallest country in the world?
Answer: Vatican City - Question: The Great Barrier Reef is off the coast of which country?
Answer: Australia - Question: What is the largest island in the world?
Answer: Greenland - Question: What is the name of the largest ocean on Earth?
Answer: Pacific Ocean - Question: Which is the tallest mountain in the world?
Answer: Mount Everest
RELATED: Geography Quiz Questions That Will Take You All Around the World.
General Knowledge Questions About Animals
- Question: What is the largest mammal in the world?
Answer: The blue whale - Question: How long is the gestation period of an African elephant?
Answer: 22 months - Question: Ants do what to warn one another of danger?
Answer: Release pheromones - Question: How many years can a snail sleep for?
Answer: Three - Question: Which bird lays the largest eggs?
Answer: The ostrich - Question: How many noses does a slug have?
Answer: Four - Question: What do you call a group of zebras?
Answer: A dazzle - Question: Why do otters hold hands when floating in water?
Answer: So they don't drift apart while sleeping - Question: What is the smallest species of monkey?
Answer: Pygmy marmoset - Question: What is the slowest animal in the world?
Answer: The three-toed sloth - Question: What part of the body is used to determine the age of a horse?
Answer: Its teeth - Question: Which ocean creatures have no teeth?
Answer: Baleen whales - Question: How many compartments does a cow's stomach have?
Answer: Four - Question: What is the world's largest living reptile?
Answer: The saltwater crocodile - Question: What is the fastest land animal in the world?
Answer: The cheetah
RELATED: 40 Ocean Facts That Will Blow You Out of the Water.
General Knowledge Questions About History
- Question: In what year did the Berlin Wall fall?
Answer: 1989 - Question: Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize?
Answer: Marie Curie - Question: What ancient civilization built the Machu Picchu complex in Peru?
Answer: The Incas - Question: What event is believed to have kicked off World War I?
Answer: The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria - Question: Who was the first Prime Minister of India?
Answer: Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru - Question: What was the capital city of the Inca Empire?
Answer: Cuzco - Question: In which country was the Battle of Culloden fought?
Answer: Scotland - Question: What year did World War II end?
Answer: 1945 - Question: What year did the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) go into effect?
Answer: 1994 - Question: Who was the first female millionaire in the U.S.?
Answer: Madam CJ Walker - Question: The Great Wall of China was primarily built by which dynasty?
Answer: The Ming Dynasty - Question: Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
Answer: Thomas Jefferson - Question: How many biological children did George Washington have?
Answer: None - Question: What was the name of the first man-made satellite to orbit the Earth?
Answer: Sputnik - Question: Who was the first ruler of the Mongol Empire?
Answer: Genghis Khan
Carrie Weisman oversees all SEO efforts at Best Life. She specializes in content optimization and editorial marketing.
Read more
Sources referenced in this article
- Source: Mars Facts
- Source: Why does the Sun rise in the east and set in the west?
- Source: National Symbols
- Source: Mercury
- Source: Measuring Earwax Cortisol Concentration using a non-stressful sampling method
- Source: Anatomy of the Nose
- Source: Chambers and valves of the heart
- Source: WHAT'S YOUR SPACE HEIGHT?
- Source: Grand Canyon
- Source: Great Barrier Reef
- Source: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
- Source: City of Cuzco
- Source: World War II
- Source: North American Free Trade Agreement
- Source: Thomas Jefferson
- Source: The Launch of Sputnik, 1957
