These trivia questions about North America come in four rounds: the name and the shape on the map; coasts, plains and plates; deep time and the first peoples; and settlers, treaties and languages.
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The whole continent, not one country
The name and the shape on the map asks who wrote America on a map of 1507 and what Parias was. Coasts, plains and plates runs from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Basin. Deep time and the first peoples has Laurentia, the Morrison Formation and the Clovis culture. Settlers, treaties and languages covers Quebec City, the Quebec Act and Danish in Greenland.
For a class or a quiz night
Answer with a tap; the card then marks the correct choice and prints a reason beside a link to the source article. The state, country and school packs of this site keep the best-known facts, such as the highest peak, so this pack asks the less familiar ones.
Questions and answers
What are some easy questions in this pack?
Which two continents are larger than North America? Which is the largest body of water that indents the continent? Which crop was first grown here: wheat, rice, coffee or the sunflower? The answers are Asia and Africa, the Gulf of Mexico and the sunflower.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 3, 2026 in the Wikipedia article North America, linked under the question. Population figures, weather records, earthquake tolls, living people and trade politics are left out.
Who put the name America on the map?
The German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Waldseemüller's world map of 1507 set the word America on present-day South America, and mapmakers later extended it to the northern continent.
What is Middle America?
Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean together. The rest of the continent, which takes in Canada, Greenland, the continental United States, Bermuda and Saint Pierre and Miquelon, is called Northern America.
A world map of 1553 called North America Baccalearum. What does that name mean?Answer: Realm of the cod fish. Source: Wikipedia: North America
América Septentrional was the first official name given to which country?Answer: Mexico. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Geographers split the continent into Northern America and a southern part that takes in Mexico and the islands. What is the southern part called?Answer: Middle America. Source: Wikipedia: North America
North America is the third-largest continent by area. Which two are larger?Answer: Asia and Africa. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Northern America takes in Canada, Greenland, the continental United States, Bermuda and which pair of French islands?Answer: Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Source: Wikipedia: North America
On its southeastern side the continent meets South America and which sea?Answer: The Caribbean Sea. Source: Wikipedia: North America
On that map of 1507 the word America sat on which present-day continent?Answer: South America. Source: Wikipedia: North America
What did the Spanish Empire call its territories in North and South America?Answer: Las Indias. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Which German cartographer put the word America on a world map he published in 1507?Answer: Martin Waldseemüller. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Which mapmaker used the name America for the whole Western Hemisphere on his world map of 1538?Answer: Gerardus Mercator. Source: Wikipedia: North America
While the name America still belonged to the south, what was the land north of present-day Mexico called on the map?Answer: Parias. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Why did the mapmaker of 1507 write America in a feminine form?Answer: To match Europa, Asia and Africa. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Coasts, plains and plates 12
After the Gulf of Mexico, which is the next largest body of water cutting into the continent?Answer: Hudson Bay. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Bermuda is an oceanic island formed on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Which cape is the nearest landmass to it?Answer: Cape Hatteras. Source: Wikipedia: North America
The Great Plains begin at the Gulf of Mexico. How far north do they stretch?Answer: To the Canadian Arctic. Source: Wikipedia: North America
The islands of the West Indies trace a drowned land bridge that once ran from Florida to what is now which country?Answer: Venezuela. Source: Wikipedia: North America
North America reaches from above the Arctic Circle to south of which line of latitude?Answer: The Tropic of Cancer. Source: Wikipedia: North America
The point of the continent farthest from any coastline lies in which state?Answer: South Dakota. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Two smaller plates border the North American Plate on its western frontier. Which two?Answer: The Juan de Fuca Plate and the Cocos Plate. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Which is the largest body of water that indents the North American continent?Answer: The Gulf of Mexico. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Which lower region of small ranges and deserts sits between the main Rockies and the coast ranges?Answer: The Great Basin. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Which of these crops was first domesticated in North America?Answer: The sunflower. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Which of these flavorings comes from a plant that was domesticated in North America?Answer: Vanilla. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Which of these is one of the three longest mountain ranges of Central America?Answer: The Cordillera de Talamanca. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Deep time and the first peoples 12
Athabaskan and Uto-Aztecan are two examples of what?Answer: Language families of native North America. Source: Wikipedia: North America
The building of the Appalachian Mountains was completed as which supercontinent came together?Answer: Pangaea. Source: Wikipedia: North America
The Clovis culture, one of the oldest yet discovered on the continent, is placed in which modern state?Answer: New Mexico. Source: Wikipedia: North America
How did the major islands of Hawaii form?Answer: From volcanic rock erupted over a hot spot. Source: Wikipedia: North America
In the high Arctic, artifacts of the Dorset culture vanish from the record and are replaced by those of which people?Answer: The Thule. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Many northern lakes and rivers of the continent, the biggest lakes among them, were carved about 10,000 years ago by what?Answer: Receding glaciers. Source: Wikipedia: North America
The Rockies began to form in a period of mountain building between 80 and 55 million years ago. What is it called?Answer: The Laramide orogeny. Source: Wikipedia: North America
The Sudbury Basin in Ontario is the best known mining district of the Canadian Shield. What is it thought to be?Answer: An ancient meteorite impact crater. Source: Wikipedia: North America
What is the name of the ancient craton that forms the geologic core of North America?Answer: Laurentia. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Which culture spread along a great river valley with urban centers built around platform mounds?Answer: The Mississippian culture. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Which people developed a writing system, a complex calendar and the concept of zero by around 400 CE?Answer: The Maya. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Which rock formation of the western United States is the most significant Late Jurassic dinosaur fossil deposit on the continent?Answer: The Morrison Formation. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Settlers, treaties and languages 12
Before a war of separation, the land where the canal across the isthmus was dug belonged to which country?Answer: Colombia. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Besides Lewis and Clark, which of these led an overland expedition from the United States that reached the Pacific?Answer: Frémont. Source: Wikipedia: North America
By the late 18th century, which empire was established on the northern Pacific coast and busy in the maritime fur trade?Answer: Russia. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Canada's constitution dates to 1867. Not until which year could Canada amend it on its own?Answer: 1982. Source: Wikipedia: North America
French and French Antillean Creole are spoken beside English on Saint Lucia and which other Caribbean island?Answer: Dominica. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Most people of the continent speak one of three European languages. Which three dominate?Answer: English, Spanish and French. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day is the national holiday of Quebec. On which date does it fall?Answer: June 24. Source: Wikipedia: North America
When Mexico won its independence in 1821, which region to its south was part of it?Answer: Central America. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Which act of the British parliament in 1774 wrote the French heritage of Canada into law and established French civil law?Answer: The Quebec Act. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Which city of present-day Canada began as a French settlement established in 1608?Answer: Quebec City. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Which European language is prevalent in Greenland alongside Greenlandic?Answer: Danish. Source: Wikipedia: North America
Which of the early British settlements in present-day Canada dates from 1749?Answer: Halifax, Nova Scotia. Source: Wikipedia: North America
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Every answer was read on October 3, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article North America (text under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license), which is linked beside each question; the questions, wrong choices and explanations are in our own words. Left out on purpose: population figures and ranks, weather records, earthquake and eruption tolls, current office-holders and living people, sports, companies, trade politics, and the plain facts that the state, country and school packs of this site already ask (the highest peak, the land bridge, the canal, the purchase of 1803). Levels are our estimate: easy is fair for any table, medium suits people who know the continent, hard will stump most tables. Licence: own work