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Today in context,
October 27, 2021
Scary Stuff
’Tis the season for things that go bump in the night.
Was Dracula a real person?
Some people believe Vlad the Impaler inspired the character. Are they right?
The cause of your bad sleep?
Learn about eight terrifying creatures, including a demon that supposedly jumps on the chest of slumbering people, causing pain or even death.
Who’s the villain in Halloween?
And what real-life killer inspired Psycho? Discover those answers and more in our scary movie quiz.
Vampiric beast or mangy canine?
The name of this Latin American legendary monster translates as “goat-sucker.”
Why are people afraid of clowns?
It’s no laughing matter. Some people are really terrified of them.
Can you be scared to death?
Should we be scared of being scared?
Early Influencers
Trendsetters have existed long before the rise of Instagram, TikTok, and other social media. For centuries people have been sparking fads—some of which have endured. Today we’re focusing on a few of these trailblazers.
Can You Guess What He Popularized?
article / Politics, Law & Government
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (reproduction no. LC-DIG-cwpb-05368)
Nothing Came Between Her and Her Pantaloons
article / Visual Arts
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. (digital. id. cph 3g03591)
Trending Quizzes
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U.S. Presidents and Their Years in Office Quiz
The president of the United States serves a four-year term, and until 1951 a president had no limits on the number of terms....
Countries and Capitals Quiz
How well do you know the world’s capital cities? In this quiz you’ll be presented with the names of 195 capital cities. You’ll...
118 Names and Symbols of the Periodic Table Quiz
The periodic table is made up of 118 elements. How well do you know their symbols? In this quiz you’ll be shown all 118 chemical...
Exploring the Human Body Quiz
This quiz will test what you know about the parts of the human body and how they work—or don’t. You’ll need to be a master...
Understanding the Titanic Disaster
While the doomed ocean liner Titanic might be the most famous ship in the world, how well do you really know its...
Human Bones Quiz
Without bones, the human body would have a great fall like Humpty Dumpty. Test your knowledge of the human skeleton and see...
Grimm’s Fairy Tales Quiz
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the best fairy tale quiz taker of them all? If you know the Grimms’ unique form of mayhem,...
Gods, Goddesses, and Greek Mythology
In Greek mythology, who flew too close to the Sun? Spread your mental wings in this odyssey of mythical gods, goddesses,...
Know Your Pasta Shapes Quiz
Pasta comes in all sorts of different shapes. We may use informal names such as tubes, ribbons, corkscrews, and bowties,...
Which English Words Have Native American Origins?
Which mammal’s English name traces back to an Algonquian word meaning “white animal”? The English name of which antlered...
Featured Games
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Utopian Visions
Speculative written utopias and experimental utopian communities have been around for millenia. How much do you know about...
Korean Food and Drama
Are you a fan of Korean food and K-dramas? Test your knowledge with this culinary and pop-cultural crossword puzzle.
The 2007 Cricket T20 World Cup
The first Cricket T20 World Cup was held in 2007. How well do you remember this memorable event? Press Start to find out.
U.S. Presidents
In this crossword puzzle, we're testing your knowledge of U.S. presidents. (Last names only are needed.)
Before & After: Science Fiction Movies
In this crossword each clue contains the title of a science fiction movie plus a word or phrase before and/or after the title...
Earth's Continents: Real and Imagined
Today, Earth has seven continents, but it wasn't always that way. From what we know about plate tectonics, Earth's landmasses...
Skin in the Game
How much do you know about the body's largest organ? Test your integumentary knowledge with this dermatological crossword...
Deserts and Drylands of North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia
The region stretching from North Africa through Central Asia is the driest expanse of land in the world. This vast area of...
A Puzzle Dark and Grimm
Once upon a time, you played A Puzzle Dark and Grimm. Did you make it to happily-ever-after? (Only if you know Grimm's...
Flags from Around the World
This puzzle will test your knowledge of flags from around the world—and not just country flags! There might be flags from...
NBA Teams and Their Cities
Do you like basketball? Then this crossword puzzle is for you. Just provide the name of the NBA team for the given cities.
Podcasts
See All Shows And Podcasts
Botanize!
Botanize!, hosted by Melissa Petruzzello, is a podcast that will introduce you to some of the world’s most remarkable plants, fungi, and algae. These overlooked organisms have fascinating evolutionary stories to tell about survival, exploitation, adaptation, and general scrappiness, and every episode will pique your curiosity. From parasitic plants to kelp forests, Botanize! aims to showcase some of Earth’s finest nonanimal life-forms and their brilliant ecologies.
Postcards from the 6th Mass Extinction
So far there have been five notable mass extinctions on Earth. A growing number of scientists argue that we’re now in the midst of a sixth. Postcards from the 6th Mass Extinction is a podcast hosted by John P. Rafferty that attempts to personalize extinction, emphasizing the survival challenges that familiar forms of life currently face, while at the same time considering the pivotal roles they play in their own ecosystems.
Show What You Know
Informative and lively, Show What You Know is a quiz show for curious tweens and their grown-ups from Encyclopædia Britannica. Hosted by author Christopher Lloyd, each episode gives three middle-grade contestants a chance to go head to head with questions about the earth, the universe, ancient history, and more from the Britannica All New Kids’ Encyclopedia: What We Know & What We Don’t.
New on Britannica
Ship of Theseus
The ship of Theseus, the Athenian hero known for defeating the Minotaur, was said to have been preserved by the Athenians for hundreds of years. Old, decayed planks were frequently replaced with new, stronger timber. The ship thus became a symbol among philosophers for the nature of identity; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same. You probably heard about it on WandaVision.
Lost Cause
This mythologized interpretation of the Confederate defeat in the American Civil War has been used to legitimize countless acts of racial violence and civil rights abuses.
Browse by Category
Entertainment & Pop Culture
Entertainment and leisure activities have been a part of culture in one form or another since the ancient times. Dance performances, live music, and storytelling have a long tradition throughout history, even as the styles and available methods of delivery have shifted dramatically.
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jazz
music
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Rock Music and Rock ’n’ Roll
You may be familiar with Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly,...
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An Evening at the Opera
Otello. Madame Butterfly. You may be familiar with...
Geography & Travel
Planet Earth contains some extraordinarily diverse environments, some of which are easily habitable and some not so much. In different areas of Earth, one might find sweltering deserts, dense tropical rainforests, or bone-chilling tundras. Each biome and habitat comes with its own selection of flora and fauna, and it may include physical features such as canyons, volcanoes, rivers, or caves. Human beings have built homes in many different environments, settling the area and organizing it into units such as cities, states, regions, and countries, each with its own points of interest. Shifting trends in human migration have resulted in a human geography that is profoundly different from that of centuries ago.
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Southeast Indian
people
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Flags That Look Alike
Figure out which flag to wave.
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Jerusalem
Do you think you know the history of this ancient city?...
Health & Medicine
The study of the human mind and body, how these function, and how they interact—not only with each other but also with their environment—has been of utmost importance in ensuring human well-being. Research on potential treatments and preventive medicine has expanded greatly with the development of modern medicine, and a network of disciplines, including such fields as genetics, psychology, and nutrition, aims to facilitate the betterment of our health.
Featured
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cancer
disease
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Blood: Fact or Fiction?
This specialized fluid enlivens the human body, but...
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Viruses, Bacteria, and Diseases
If a person has lockjaw, what disease is he or she...
Lifestyles & Social Issues
It's easy enough to agree that human beings all around the world have certain basic requirements that must be fulfilled in order to ensure their individual and collective well-being. History has shown us, however, that it's not so easy to form societies or communities that fulfill these requirements for all members. The fight for human and civil rights has persisted for hundreds of years and remains alive today, both within the borders of nations and on an international scale. It has led to large-scale social movements and reforms concerning issues such as suffrage, slavery, women's rights, racism, environmentalism, gay rights, and much more.
Featured
- human rights
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Why Do We Celebrate Halloween?
Besides the candy, of course.
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7 of History's Most Notorious Serial Killers
Don’t read this list before bed.
Literature
With the development of language, the human imagination has found a way to create and communicate through the written word. A literary work can transport us into a fictional, fantastic new world, describe a fleeting feeling, or simply give us a picture of the past through novels, poems, tragedies, epic works, and other genres. Through literature, communication becomes an art, and it can bridge and bond people and cultures of different languages and backgrounds.
Featured
- Southeast Asian arts
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William Shakespeare: The Prose and the Playwright
Where is Shakespeare buried? Who says "Alas, poor Yorick"?...
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An Odyssey of Grecian Literature
Who was Odysseus’s wife? What author wrote The...
Philosophy & Religion
Humans have long pondered not only how we came to be but also why we came to be. The earliest Greek philosophers focused their attention upon the origin and nature of the physical world; later philosophers have theorized about the nature of knowledge, truth, good and evil, love, friendship, and much more. Philosophy involves a methodical assessment of any and all aspects of human existence and experience. The realms of philosophy and religion have sometimes intersected in conducting such inquiries as these. As with philosophy, the study of religion underscores how humankind has long speculated about its origins. The possibility of a higher being (or beings) to which livings things owe their existence has long captived human thought. Many religions also offer their own views on the nature of good and evil, and they may prescribe guidelines and judgment on different kinds of human behavior.
Featured
- historiography
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How Have Zoroastrians Been Treated in Muslim Iran?
Read about the treatment of Zoroastrians in Muslim...
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Is Occam’s Razor Valid?
Occam’s razor states that, when everything else is...
Politics, Law & Government
The world today is divided territorially into more than 190 countries, each of which possesses a national government that claims to exercise sovereignty and seeks to compel obedience to its will by its citizens. Governments can be classified in any number of ways. For example, they might be classified by the number of rulers, thus distinguishing government by one (as in a monarchy or a tyranny) from government by the few (in an aristocracy or oligarchy) and from government by the many (as in a democracy). Governments can also be classified by mode of succession; for example, ascension to governmental leadership may follow the rules of hereditary succession, or it may be determined through elections or by force. Governments also vary in terms of the laws and rules of conduct that each political entity follows.
Featured
- political philosophy
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Assassinations and invasions – how the US and France shaped Haiti’s long history of political turmoil
President Jovenel Moïse is the latest of five Haitian presidents to...
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Yes, Puerto Ricans are American citizens
Today, being born in Puerto Rico is tantamount to being...
Science
How can the sky be blue one day and stormy the next? Why do heavy objects tend to fall downwards when dropped? How are birds able to fly (and why can’t I do the same?)? Human beings have long been curious about the world in which we live, striving to identify connections among the phenomenons we witness and to understand how it all works. The field of science has developed over many centuries as a way of studying and understanding the world, beginning with the primitive stage of simply noting important regularities in nature and continuing through the rise of modern science. The modern-day sciences cover a vast range of fields, including biology, chemistry, meteorology, astronomy, physics, and much more.
Featured
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radiation
physics
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Are Bats Rodents?
They kind of look like mice with wings. Are they?
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Groundwater Quiz
You may know all about what happens to water aboveground,...
Sports & Recreation
Physical contests and recreational games have long played a part in human society. In both team and solo sports, the human body has been pushed to its limits in the name of improving athletic performance and in order to break record upon record. The ancient Olympic Games are an early example of the contests in which humans have engaged to showcase physical prowess. In modern times, sports and games have evolved into a lucrative and competitive industry, while other leisure activities, such as card and video games, can be competitive or just serve as a way to unwind or socialize.
Featured
- number game
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Best of Baseball Quiz
What team took bribes to lose the 1919 World Series?...
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Everything Track and Field Quiz
Who was the first athlete to run the mile in less than...
Technology
Humankind has long striven to improve its living conditions through the development of tools, instruments, and transportation and communications systems, all with the goal of making our lives easier, more productive and—why not?—more fun, too. Thanks to human curiosity and technological research, many significant inventions have been made throughout history that in turn made a difference in our daily lives.
Featured
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instrumentation
technology
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Can You Hear Me Now?
Who invented the radio? Who first used radio waves...
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Computers: Fact or Fiction?
Is QWERTY a computer language? Was the first Web site...
Visual Arts
These are the arts that meet the eye and evoke an emotion through an expression of skill and imagination. They include the most ancient forms, such as painting and drawing, and the arts that were born thanks to the development of technology, like sculpture, printmaking, photography, and installation art. Though beauty is in the eye of the beholder, different eras in art history have had their own principles to define beauty, from the richly ornamented taste of the Baroque to the simple utilitarian style of the Prairie School.
Featured
- outsider art
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Painters and Paintings
In this crossword puzzle, you'll be faced with clues...
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Why Is the Statue of Liberty a Woman?
Learn why the Statue of Liberty depicts a woman, including...
World History
Does history really repeat itself, or can we learn from the mistakes of those who came before us? History provides a chronological, statistical, and cultural record of the events, people, and movements that have made an impact on humankind and the world at large throughout the ages.
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Byzantine Empire
historical empire, Eurasia
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What Was the Little Ice Age?
The Little Ice Age is known for its effects in Europe...
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9 Worst Generals in History
Those who can, lead. Those who can’t,...well, nothing...
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