Quiz culture has its own vocabulary: join codes and krewes, prides and resin codes, retrieval practice and the 70/20/10 rule. This glossary defines the terms that appear across our guides, with links to the in-depth coverage of each. Terms marked with a full-definition link have their own expanded page.

A

Albedo

The share of sunlight a surface reflects. Fresh snow reflects 80–90% of incoming light — high albedo — which is why snowy ground stays cold and why shrinking ice cover accelerates warming as dark ocean and soil take its place.

Covered in: Snow Quiz, Bing Winter Quiz, Space Quiz

B

Bing Homepage Quiz

The daily trivia feature on the Bing search homepage: a striking photograph paired with a handful of multiple-choice questions about its subject. It refreshes daily, requires no account, and has become a morning ritual for millions of curious players worldwide. Full definition →

Covered in: Bing Homepage Quiz, Bing Quiz, Weekly Quiz

Bioluminescence

Light produced by living organisms through a chemical reaction — the glow of fireflies, deep-sea fish and plankton-lit waves. The sea's most common light source, it serves hunting, defense and communication across the dark ocean depths. Entity profile →

Covered in: Bioluminescence Quiz, Lion Quiz, Snow Quiz

Blooket

A classroom quiz platform famous for arcade-style game modes — Gold Quest, Tower Defense, Café — that wrap the same question sets in different games. The design insight: review feels like gaming, so students replay material voluntarily.

Covered in: Join My Quiz, Bing Education Quiz, Bing Quiz

C

Coalition (Lions)

A brotherhood of male lions that rules a pride together. Coalitions — usually littermates — hold territory far longer than solitary males, and their takeovers drive the pride's generational cycle. The term is a favorite of wildlife quiz writers.

Covered in: Lion Quiz, Endangered Animals Quiz, Bing Otter Quiz

D

Deep Dive

In our guides, the extended-analysis section beyond the essentials: multi-part explorations of history, science, records and strategy for readers who want mastery rather than a summary. Deep dives carry the detail that separates champions from casual players.

Covered in: Bing Homepage Quiz, Weekly Quiz, Bing Quiz

Difficulty Curve (70/20/10)

The host's rule of thumb for question mix: roughly 70% medium, 20% easy, 10% hard. The curve keeps every player scoring while still crowning a clear winner — the single most important design decision in a quiz round.

Covered in: Join My Quiz, Weekly Quiz, Bing Quiz

Distractor

A wrong answer option in a multiple-choice question, designed to be plausible. Good distractors reflect common misconceptions — Indira Gandhi for 'first female prime minister' — so the question measures real knowledge rather than lucky elimination.

Covered in: Join My Quiz, Women's History Quiz, Bing Quiz

Dynasty (Sports)

A team that dominates its league across multiple seasons and championships: the 1970s Steelers, 1980s–90s 49ers, and 2001–2018 Patriots in the NFL. Dynasty questions are quiz staples because the sequence of eras is compact and learnable.

Covered in: Super Bowl Quiz, Wrestling Quiz, Usain Bolt Quiz

G

Gelato

Italy's frozen dessert: more milk than cream, churned slowly with little air, and served slightly warmer than American ice cream. The result is denser and more intensely flavored — lower in fat despite tasting richer.

Covered in: Bing Ice Cream Quiz, Croissant Quiz, Pho Quiz

J

Join Code (Game PIN)

The short numeric code a quiz platform generates when a host launches a game. Players enter it on the platform's join page — kahoot.it, joinmyquiz.com, blooket.com/play — pick a nickname, and play. Codes work only while the game is open. Full definition → Entity profile →

Covered in: Join My Quiz, Bing Education Quiz, Bing Quiz

K

Kahoot

The Norwegian quiz platform that popularized the join-code model after its 2013 launch. Known for game-show energy: questions on the host's screen, answers on players' devices, points for speed and accuracy, and a podium reveal after every round. Entity profile →

Covered in: Join My Quiz, Bing Education Quiz, Weekly Quiz

Kayfabe

Professional wrestling's code of protecting storylines as real — the staged rivalries, personas and outcomes treated as genuine inside the show. The word dates to carnival slang, and 'breaking kayfabe' remains wrestling's cardinal sin.

Covered in: Wrestling Quiz, Super Bowl Quiz, Bing Entertainment Quiz

King Cake

The oval, icing-glazed cake of Carnival season, eaten from Twelfth Night (January 6) until Fat Tuesday. A tiny baby figurine hidden inside crowns the finder 'king' — and obliges them to buy the next cake, sustaining the season's delicious loop.

Covered in: Bing Mardi Gras Quiz, Croissant Quiz, Bing Ice Cream Quiz

Krewe

A private club that organizes a Mardi Gras parade and ball in New Orleans. Krewes build floats, choose royalty and throw beads and signature prizes. Famous examples: Rex (1872, king of Carnival), Comus (oldest), and Zulu (golden coconuts). Full definition → Entity profile →

Covered in: Bing Mardi Gras Quiz, Father's Day Quiz, Women's History Quiz

M

Megacity

An urban agglomeration with more than ten million residents. Dozens now exist, concentrated in Asia, with Tokyo's metropolitan area the largest at roughly 37 million. The megacity league table shifts yearly as Delhi and other giants climb. Full definition → Entity profile →

Covered in: Bing World Cities Quiz, Maldives Quiz, New Zealand Quiz

Multiple Choice

A question format offering several answer options, one correct. Its strength is fairness and speed; its craft lies in the distractors — wrong answers plausible enough to make knowledge, not guessing, the deciding factor.

Covered in: Join My Quiz, Bing Quiz, Bing Homepage Quiz

N

News Quiz

A current-affairs quiz testing the week's headlines across politics, science, sport and culture. Success comes from steady news habits rather than cramming — the questions favor anyone who followed the stories as they happened.

Covered in: Bing News Quiz, Weekly Quiz, Bing Quiz

O

Overrun (Ice Cream)

The percentage of air churned into ice cream. Budget tubs may be half air; premium ice cream carries far less, which is why it feels denser. Gelato's character comes partly from low overrun — less air, more intensity per spoonful. Full definition → Entity profile →

Covered in: Bing Ice Cream Quiz, Croissant Quiz, Bing Recycling Quiz

P

Picture Round

A quiz round where answers come from images: landmarks, skylines, flags, faces or close-up details. Picture rounds reset attention, reward observation over memory, and defeat search-engine cheating when the images are cropped cleverly.

Covered in: Bing World Cities Quiz, Join My Quiz, Christ the Redeemer Quiz

Pillar Page

A comprehensive guide that anchors a topic and links out to every related subtopic — the hub of a content cluster. Our pillar guides cover the core quiz formats, with every themed guide linking back to them for context.

Covered in: Bing Quiz, Bing Homepage Quiz, Bing News Quiz

Pride (Lions)

The family unit of lions — the only truly social big cats. A pride centers on related lionesses who hold territory for generations and raise cubs communally, defended by a coalition of males. Typical size is ten to fifteen members. Full definition →

Covered in: Lion Quiz, Endangered Animals Quiz, Bigfoot and Friends Quiz

Q

Quiz Platform

Software for creating, hosting and playing quizzes — Kahoot, Quizizz, Blooket, Mentimeter and Gimkit are the leaders. The defining innovation is the join-code model: players enter a PIN in any browser and play instantly, no account required.

Covered in: Join My Quiz, Bing Quiz, Weekly Quiz

Quizizz

A quiz platform distinguished by self-paced modes: players see questions on their own devices and can play asynchronously as homework. Its join page, joinmyquiz.com, is so commonly searched that 'join my quiz' became a keyword of its own. Entity profile →

Covered in: Join My Quiz, Bing Education Quiz, Bing Quiz

Quizmaster

The host of a quiz event: writer of questions, reader of rounds, arbiter of disputes. A good quizmaster balances difficulty so every table scores, reads questions twice, and keeps the leaderboard dramatic until the final round.

Covered in: Join My Quiz, Weekly Quiz, Bing Quiz

R

Resin Identification Code

The number 1–7 inside the chasing-arrows triangle on plastic items, identifying the polymer type — not recyclability. Introduced in 1988, the codes are the source of the world's most persistent recycling myth: only #1 and #2 are widely recycled curbside. Full definition → Entity profile →

Covered in: Bing Recycling Quiz, Bing Winter Quiz, Endangered Animals Quiz

Retrieval Practice

The learning science principle that actively recalling information strengthens memory far more than re-reading it. Quizzes are retrieval practice in its purest form — every answer you pull from memory makes that memory more durable. Full definition → Entity profile →

Covered in: Weekly Quiz, Bing Education Quiz, Bing Quiz

S

Sepsis

A life-threatening condition where the body's response to infection injures its own organs. It is a medical emergency on par with heart attack and stroke: every hour's delay in treatment raises risk, which is why 'could it be sepsis?' saves lives.

Covered in: Sepsis Quiz, Wellbeing Quiz, Bing DNA Facts Quiz

Sorbet

A frozen dessert of fruit, sugar and water — completely dairy-free, which distinguishes it from sherbet (which contains a little milk). Its clean, intense fruit flavor makes it both a dessert and a classic palate cleanser between courses.

Covered in: Bing Ice Cream Quiz, Croissant Quiz, Pho Quiz

Spaced Repetition

A study technique that reviews material at expanding intervals, timed to catch memories just before they fade. Combined with retrieval practice, it is the most evidence-backed way to build long-term knowledge — and the logic behind weekly quiz routines.

Covered in: Weekly Quiz, Bing Education Quiz, Bing Quiz

Speed Round (Lightning Round)

A timed rapid-fire round where teams answer as many questions as possible in a fixed window. Speed rounds reward instant recall over deliberation and are the standard finale format for building end-of-night drama.

Covered in: Weekly Quiz, Join My Quiz, Super Bowl Quiz

Suffrage

The right to vote — and the name of the movements that won it. Women's suffrage campaigns ran for decades: New Zealand led the world in 1893, Finland granted full political rights in 1906, and the United States followed with the 19th Amendment in 1920.

Covered in: Women's History Quiz, Extraordinary Women Quiz, New Zealand Quiz

T

Tiebreaker (Sudden Death)

The mechanism for settling a drawn quiz: a closest-guess numerical question ('how many…?') or a sudden-death head-to-head. Every prepared host carries one obscure-number tiebreaker — the crowd's favorite moment of the night.

Covered in: Join My Quiz, Super Bowl Quiz, Weekly Quiz

Trivia

Knowledge of interesting but specialized facts, and the game formats built on testing it. From Latin trivium, the word now covers pub quizzes, game shows, app games and homepage quizzes alike — the universal currency of quiz culture.

Covered in: Join My Quiz, Weekly Quiz, Bing Quiz

Trivia Night (Pub Quiz)

A social quiz event, typically in a pub or bar: teams answer rounds of questions across mixed categories for prizes and glory. The classic format runs three rounds with picture and audio rounds, a halftime leaderboard and a dramatic final question.

Covered in: Join My Quiz, Weekly Quiz, Bing Entertainment Quiz

W

Weekly Quiz

A quiz format that runs on a seven-day cycle, typically recapping the week's news, events or themes. Weekly formats reward consistent players: a regular routine of reading and retrieval practice turns current events into reliable points.

Covered in: Weekly Quiz, Bing News Quiz, Bing Homepage Quiz

Wish-Cycling

Putting doubtful items in the recycling bin and hoping for the best. The good intention backfires: contaminated loads can send entire truckloads to landfill and jam sorting machinery. The industry's plea: when in doubt, throw it out.

Covered in: Bing Recycling Quiz, Snow Quiz, Bing Winter Quiz

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