For larger groups, assign each team a category and give them 60 seconds to answer as many questions as possible. The team with the most correct answers at the end wins. A sign up sheet is a great way to track teams, assign scorekeepers, and sort out who's bringing snacks.
True or false questions are the perfect equalizer. They require no special knowledge, no teams of experts, and no complicated rules, just curiosity, a little confidence, and the willingness to be spectacularly wrong in front of people you like.
Use this list for your next game night, as a classroom warm-up, or to break the ice at a team meeting. Divide into teams and race through a category, appoint one person as host and keep score, or go fully casual and just see who knows the most random things. However you play, these questions cover enough ground that everyone will get a few right, and everyone will get a few wrong.
Animals
A group of flamingos is called a flock.
Answer: False Explanation: A group of flamingos is called a flamboyance.
Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump.
Answer: FalseElephants, hippos, rhinos, and sloths are all physically unable to jump. Elephants are simply the most famous example.
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Answer: True Explanation: Snails can enter a long dormancy period called estivation when weather conditions become too hot or dry.
Octopuses have three hearts.
Answer: True Explanation: Two pump blood to the gills, and one pumps it to the rest of the body. All three stop beating when an octopus swims, which is why they prefer crawling.
Sharks are the only fish that can blink.
Answer: True Explanation: Sharks have a nictitating membrane, a protective inner eyelid that closes when they attack prey.
A cow produces more milk when listening to music.
Answer: True Explanation: Studies have shown that slow, calming music can increase milk production by a meaningful amount.
Penguins mate for life.
Answer: False Explanation: Most penguin species are serially monogamous. They are faithful within a breeding season but not always to the same partner across years.
Butterflies taste with their feet.
Answer: True Explanation: Butterflies have taste sensors on their legs that help them identify plants when they land.
A goldfish has a memory span of only three seconds.
Answer: False Explanation: This is a common myth. Goldfish can actually remember things for months.
Sea otters hold hands while sleeping so they do not drift apart.
Answer: True Explanation: This behavior is called rafting. Sea otters also wrap themselves in kelp to keep from drifting.
Crocodiles cannot stick out their tongues.
Answer: True Explanation: A crocodile’s tongue is attached to the roof of its mouth by a membrane and cannot be extended.
The mantis shrimp can see more colors than any other known animal.
Answer: True Explanation: Mantis shrimp have 16 types of color receptors, compared to the three that humans have.
Science
Lightning never strikes the same place twice.
Answer: False Explanation: Lightning frequently strikes the same place multiple times. The Empire State Building is struck by lightning around 20 times per year.
The Sun is a star.
Answer: True Explanation: The Sun is a medium-sized star classified as a yellow dwarf, located about 93 million miles from Earth.
Sound travels faster than light.
Answer: False Explanation: Light travels at approximately 186,000 miles per second, while sound travels at about 767 miles per hour.
Water always boils at 212°F (100°C).
Answer: False Explanation: Water boils at lower temperatures at higher altitudes because atmospheric pressure decreases. In Denver, Colorado, water boils at about 202°F.
The human brain uses about 20% of the body's total energy.
Answer: True Explanation: Even though the brain accounts for only about 2% of body weight, it consumes a large portion of the body’s energy.
DNA stands for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid.
Answer: False Explanation: DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleic Acid.
A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus.
Answer: True Explanation: Venus rotates so slowly that it completes a full orbit around the Sun before it finishes one rotation on its axis.
All planets in our solar system rotate in the same direction.
Answer: False Explanation: Venus and Uranus rotate in the opposite direction from most other planets.
Humans share about 50% of their DNA with bananas.
Answer: True Explanation: Humans share surprising amounts of DNA with many living things, including about 60% with fruit flies and roughly 85% with mice.
Hot water freezes faster than cold water under certain conditions.
Answer: True Explanation: This phenomenon is called the Mpemba effect. Scientists have observed it repeatedly, although the exact conditions that cause it are still debated.
The smallest bone in the human body is in the ear.
Answer: True Explanation: The stapes, or stirrup bone, located in the middle ear, is the smallest bone in the human body.
Atoms are mostly empty space.
Answer: True Explanation: If the nucleus of an atom were the size of a marble, the atom itself would be roughly the size of a football stadium.
Genius Tip
True or false questions are a great warm-up, but icebreakers keep the energy going. Use them at the start of a game night, team meeting, or classroom activity to get everyone talking before the real competition begins.
Answer: False Explanation: Koalas also have fingerprints, and they are so similar to human fingerprints that they have occasionally confused crime scene investigators.
The human body contains enough iron to make a small nail.
Answer: True Explanation: The average adult body contains about 3 to 4 grams of iron, mostly in the blood.
Your nose and ears never stop growing.
Answer:True Explanation:While most bones stop growing after adolescence, cartilage continues to grow slowly throughout life. Ears and noses are largely made of cartilage.
The tongue is the strongest muscle in the human body.
Answer: False Explanation: The tongue is strong, but the masseter (jaw muscle) is generally considered the strongest muscle relative to its size.
Humans are born with all the neurons they will ever have.
Answer: False Explanation: The brain continues to produce new neurons throughout life, particularly in the hippocampus, which is associated with memory and learning.
Your stomach gets an entirely new lining every few days.
Answer: True Explanation: Stomach acid is powerful enough to dissolve metal, so the stomach replaces its lining roughly every three to four days.
The human eye can detect a candle flame from about 14 miles away on a clear, dark night.
Answer: True Explanation: Human vision is extremely sensitive in low-light conditions and can detect even very small amounts of light at great distances.
Blood is blue inside the body.
Answer: False Explanation: Human blood is always red. Deoxygenated blood appears darker red, not blue. The blue look of veins through skin is caused by how light passes through tissue.
Adults have fewer bones than babies.
Answer: True Explanation: Babies are born with around 300 bones. Many fuse together during childhood and adolescence, leaving adults with 206 bones.
Yawning is contagious even when you read about it.
Answer: True Explanation: Simply reading or thinking about yawning can trigger one. (You might even be yawning right now.)
Geography
Australia is both a country and a continent.
Answer: True Explanation: Australia is the only nation in the world that occupies an entire continent.
Canada has more lakes than any other country in the world.
Answer: True Explanation: Canada contains more than 60% of the world's lakes, totaling over 2 million.
The Sahara is the largest desert in the world.
Answer: False Explanation: Antarctica is the largest desert in the world. A desert is defined by low precipitation, not temperature. The Sahara is the largest hot desert.
Russia shares a border with more countries than any other nation.
Answer: True Explanation: Russia borders 14 countries, more than any other nation on Earth.
The Amazon River flows into the Pacific Ocean.
Answer: False Explanation: The Amazon River flows into the Atlantic Ocean on the northeastern coast of Brazil.
The Eiffel Tower grows taller in summer.
Answer: True Explanation: The iron structure expands in warm temperatures, allowing the tower to grow up to about 6 inches taller during hot weather.
Vatican City is the smallest country in the world by both area and population.
Answer: True Explanation: Vatican City covers about 0.17 square miles and has a population of fewer than 1,000 people.
New Zealand was the first country to give women the right to vote.
Answer: True Explanation: New Zealand granted women the right to vote in 1893, nearly 30 years before the United States.
The Great Wall of China is visible from space with the naked eye.
Answer: False Explanation: This is a common myth. The wall is long but not wide enough to be seen from space without aid, according to multiple astronauts.
Iceland is covered in ice and Greenland is covered in green.
Answer: False Explanation: Iceland has a relatively mild climate with large areas of vegetation, while Greenland is about 80% covered by an ice sheet.
More people live in the city of Tokyo than in the entire country of Canada.
Answer: True Explanation: The greater Tokyo metropolitan area has around 37 million residents, which is close to the entire population of Canada.
Food & Drink
Honey never expires.
Answer: True Explanation: Archaeologists have found 3,000-year-old honey in Egyptian tombs that was still edible. Its low moisture content and acidic pH prevent bacteria from growing.
Almonds are a type of nut.
Answer: False Explanation: Almonds are technically seeds. They are the edible pit of a drupe fruit, more closely related to peaches than to walnuts.
Coffee is made from beans.
Answer: False Explanation: Coffee is made from the roasted seeds of a coffee plant's fruit, commonly called coffee cherries. They are seeds, not true beans.
Carrots were originally purple.
Answer: True Explanation: Wild carrots were purple, yellow, and white. The familiar orange carrot was cultivated in the Netherlands during the 17th century.
Tomatoes are legally classified as a vegetable in the United States.
Answer: True Explanation: In 1893, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Nix v. Heddenthat tomatoes are legally vegetables for trade and tariff purposes, even though they are botanically fruits.
Bananas are radioactive.
Answer: True Explanation: Bananas contain potassium-40, a naturally occurring radioactive isotope. The amount is extremely small and harmless.
White chocolate is a type of chocolate.
Answer: False Explanation: White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk but no cocoa solids, which many purists consider necessary for true chocolate.
Peanut butter was invented by a Canadian.
Answer: True Explanation: Marcellus Edson of Montreal patented a peanut paste made from roasted peanuts in 1884.
The most expensive spice in the world by weight is vanilla.
Answer: False Explanation: Saffron is the most expensive spice. It takes around 75,000 crocus flowers to produce one pound of saffron.
An avocado is a fruit.
Answer: True Explanation: Botanically, an avocado is a large berry with a single seed produced by a flowering plant.
Genius Tip
Once you've exhausted the true or false round, getting to know you questions are a natural next step — especially for new groups or teams who are just getting comfortable with each other.
The Olympic Games were originally held every two years.
Answer: False Explanation: The ancient Olympic Games were held every four years. That interval, called an Olympiad, was also used as a unit of time in ancient Greece.
A regulation NBA basketball hoop is exactly 10 feet off the ground.
Answer: True Explanation: The 10-foot height has been the standard since basketball was invented by James Naismith in 1891.
Golf was the first sport played on the moon.
Answer: True Explanation: Astronaut Alan Shepard hit two golf balls on the Moon during the Apollo 14 mission in 1971.
The Tour de France is always won by a French cyclist.
Answer: False Explanation: French cyclists have rarely won in recent decades. Riders from countries like Spain, the United States, and Great Britain have dominated many modern races.
Tennis scoring uses the term "love" to mean zero.
Answer: True Explanation: The most common theory is that the term comes from the French word l'oeuf, meaning egg, which resembles the shape of zero.
Brazil has won the most FIFA World Cup titles.
Answer: True Explanation: Brazil has won five World Cups, more than any other nation.
The marathon distance of 26.2 miles comes from an ancient Greek legend.
Answer: True Explanation: The story comes from the legend of Pheidippides, who ran from Marathon to Athens to report a Greek victory. The modern distance was standardized at the 1908 London Olympics.
In baseball, a perfect game means a pitcher strikes out every batter.
Answer: False Explanation: A perfect game means every batter is retired without reaching base. Outs can occur through strikeouts, groundouts, or flyouts.
Soccer (football) has more fans worldwide than any other sport.
Answer: True Explanation: Soccer’s global fanbase is estimated at roughly 4 billion people, making it the most popular sport in the world.
The New York City Marathon is the largest marathon in the world.
Answer: True Explanation: The race regularly hosts around 50,000 runners, making it the largest marathon by number of participants.
History
Napoleon Bonaparte was unusually short for his time.
Answer: False Explanation: Napoleon was about 5 feet 6–7 inches tall, which was average or slightly above average for a French man in the late 1700s. The “short Napoleon” myth likely came from British propaganda and confusion between French and English measurement systems.
The Great Fire of London started in a bakery.
Answer: True Explanation: The fire began in a bakery on Pudding Lane in 1666 and burned for four days, destroying large parts of the city.
Albert Einstein failed mathematics as a student.
Answer: False Explanation: Einstein excelled in mathematics from a young age and had mastered calculus by the time he was a teenager.
The first person to walk on the moon was Neil Armstrong.
Answer: True Explanation: Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon on July 20, 1969, during the Apollo 11 mission.
Cleopatra lived closer in time to the Moon landing than to the construction of the Great Pyramid.
Answer: True Explanation: The Great Pyramid was completed around 2560 BC, Cleopatra lived around 30 BC, and the Moon landing occurred in 1969. Cleopatra is closer in time to the Moon landing.
The Titanic had enough lifeboats for everyone on board.
Answer: False Explanation: The Titanic carried lifeboats with space for about 1,178 people, but more than 2,200 people were on board.
The first product scanned with a barcode at a store checkout was chewing gum.
Answer: True Explanation: On June 26, 1974, a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum became the first product scanned using a barcode at a supermarket in Ohio.
The shortest war in recorded history lasted less than an hour.
Answer: True Explanation: The Anglo-Zanzibar War in 1896 lasted roughly 38–45 minutes.
The Eiffel Tower was originally intended to be permanent.
Answer: False Explanation: The tower was built for the 1889 World’s Fair and was originally meant to be dismantled after 20 years, but it was preserved because it proved useful for radio transmissions.
Abraham Lincoln was the tallest U.S. president.
Answer: True Explanation: Abraham Lincoln stood 6 feet 4 inches tall, making him the tallest president in U.S. history.
Holidays
The tradition of the Christmas tree originated in Germany.
Answer: True Explanation: Decorating evergreen trees indoors during winter became popular in Germany in the 16th century and later spread throughout Europe and the United States.
Halloween has its roots in an ancient Celtic festival.
Answer: True Explanation: Halloween traces back to the Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter.
Groundhog Day is based on a German tradition.
Answer: True Explanation: German immigrants brought a similar Candlemas tradition to Pennsylvania, originally using a hedgehog to predict the weather.
The word “Easter” has definite Christian origins.
Answer: False Explanation: The origin of the English word “Easter” is debated. One theory connects it to Eostre, a Germanic spring deity, though historians disagree on the exact origin.
St. Valentine’s Day has always been associated with romantic love.
Answer: False Explanation: The holiday began as a religious feast day. Its connection to romantic love grew during the Middle Ages, especially through literature like Geoffrey Chaucer’s poetry.
In the United States, Thanksgiving is held on the last Thursday of November.
Answer: False Explanation: Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, which is not always the last Thursday of the month.
Fireworks were invented in China.
Answer: True Explanation: Fireworks were developed in China around the 7th century during the Tang Dynasty, originally discovered while experimenting with early gunpowder.
The New Year is celebrated on January 1 in every country.
Answer: False Explanation: Many cultures celebrate the new year on different dates, including Lunar New Year, Nowruz, and Rosh Hashanah.
The candy cane shape has a specific symbolic origin.
Answer: False Explanation: Stories about the candy cane representing a shepherd’s crook or the letter J are popular but unsupported by historical evidence. The shape was likely created so the candy could hang on Christmas trees.
Miscellaneous
A group of crows is called a murder.
Answer: True Explanation: The term dates back to medieval English folklore and has been used since at least the 15th century.
The hashtag symbol (#) is called an octothorpe.
Answer: True Explanation: Telephone engineers coined the term “octothorpe” in the 1960s when the symbol was added to push-button phones.
“Q” is the only letter that does not appear in any U.S. state name.
Answer: False Explanation: Several letters do not appear in state names, including B, J, Q, X, and Z.
A group of cats is called a clowder.
Answer: True Explanation: Another lesser-known term is a “glaring,” especially when the cats appear unfriendly.
The color orange was named after the fruit.
Answer: True Explanation: Before the fruit reached Europe, the color was often described as “yellow-red.” The English word “orange” comes from the Sanskrit word naranga.
Fortune cookies were invented in China.
Answer: False Explanation: Fortune cookies were invented in the United States, most likely in California in the early 20th century.
It is possible to fold a piece of paper in half more than seven times.
Answer: True Explanation: With a large enough sheet of paper, people have successfully folded paper more than 12 times.
The dot over a lowercase “i” or “j” has a name.
Answer: True Explanation: The dot is called a tittle, a term used in typography and linguistics.
The voices of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse were married in real life.
Answer: True Explanation: Wayne Allwine, who voiced Mickey Mouse, married Russi Taylor, the voice of Minnie Mouse, in 1991.
A day on Earth is exactly 24 hours long.
Answer: False Explanation: A full Earth rotation is about 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds. The 24-hour day is a rounded solar time used for everyday timekeeping.
“Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt.”
Answer: True Explanation: It is the only common English word that ends with the letters “mt.”
The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows.
Answer: True Explanation: Many historians believe Leonardo da Vinci intentionally painted her without eyebrows, though some may also have faded during centuries of restoration.
A jiffy is an actual unit of time.
Answer: True Explanation: In physics, a jiffy is the time it takes light to travel one centimeter, about 33.4 picoseconds.
The inventor of the frisbee was turned into a frisbee after his death.
Answer: True Explanation: Walter Frederick Morrison, inventor of the modern flying disc, had his ashes mixed into commemorative frisbees after he died in 2010.
The word “robot” comes from a Czech word meaning forced labor.
Answer: True Explanation: The word comes from the Czech robota, meaning forced labor, and was popularized by playwright Karel Čapek in his 1920 play R.U.R.
It is illegal to own just one guinea pig in Switzerland.
Answer: True Explanation: Swiss animal welfare laws recognize guinea pigs as social animals, so keeping only one is considered neglect.
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