Pennsylvania Trivia Questions

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The "sylvania" in Pennsylvania comes from the Latin word silva. What does silva mean?

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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with any school, exam board or quiz show. Bank checked October 3, 2026.

How it works

These Pennsylvania trivia questions run in five rounds: Penn's Woods, Congress, the Constitution and the capitol, oil, coal, steel and bridges, borders, rivers and towns, and the Pennsylvania Dutch table with some firsts.

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Pennsylvania trivia questions and answers by round

Penn's Woods: the colony asks which name William Penn wanted first. Congress, the Constitution and the capitol follows Congress to Lancaster for a single day and on to York. The Pennsylvania Dutch table and some firsts has fasnachts, sand tarts and a pot pie that is really a soup.

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Tap a choice and the card shows the right answer, why, and the article it was read in. Ten questions come up at a time; Scored round asks 20 and marks them at the end.

Questions and answers

What are some easy Pennsylvania trivia questions?

What does the Latin word silva in the state's name mean? Which city has the nation's first zoo? What does Pennsylvania, alone among the original thirteen colonies, not border? The answers are forest, Philadelphia and the Atlantic Ocean.

What does the name Pennsylvania mean?

Penn's Woods. Sylvania comes from the Latin silva, forest, and King Charles II added Penn in honor of Admiral Penn, William Penn's father. Penn himself had proposed New Wales.

What is the only town in Pennsylvania?

Bloomsburg. Pennsylvania has cities, boroughs and townships, and Bloomsburg, incorporated in 1870, is officially the state's one town.

How were the answers checked?

Each was read on October 3, 2026 in the Wikipedia article Pennsylvania, linked under the question. Chocolate, pretzel and snack makers named there are left out, and so are four facts that the site's history packs already ask.

All 47 questions with answers

Penn's Woods: the colony 8

  • The "sylvania" in Pennsylvania comes from the Latin word silva. What does silva mean? Answer: Forest. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • The king named Pennsylvania in honor of which member of the Penn family? Answer: Admiral Penn, William Penn's father. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Penn's government brought in two innovations that other colonies copied. One was freedom of religion. What was the other? Answer: The county commission. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • What was the paper money called that the Pennsylvania colony issued to make up for a shortage of gold and silver? Answer: Colonial Scrip. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Which name did William Penn first propose for his colony, before objections made him think again? Answer: New Wales. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Which rock shelter in Pennsylvania holds the earliest known signs of human activity in the state, and perhaps in all of North America? Answer: Meadowcroft Rockshelter. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • William Penn's province was governed for a century by a document with which name? Answer: The Frame of Government. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • With which leader of the Lenape did William Penn sign a peace treaty that opened a long period of friendly relations? Answer: Tamanend. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania

Congress, the Constitution and the capitol 11

  • In which decade was the present Pennsylvania State Capitol finished and dedicated? Answer: The 1900s. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • In which Pennsylvania town did the Continental Congress adopt the Articles of Confederation? Answer: York. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Into which language was the proposed Constitution put for Pennsylvanians in 1787, because a third of them spoke it? Answer: German. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • James Buchanan, of Franklin County, was the first president born in Pennsylvania. Which number president was he? Answer: The 15th. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • John Harris, for whose family Harrisburg is named, founded what on the east shore of the Susquehanna in 1705? Answer: A trading post and ferry. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Under which title did John Dickinson publish his letters against British taxes in the Pennsylvania Chronicle in 1767 and 1768? Answer: Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • What happened to the Hills Capitol in Harrisburg on February 2, 1897, during a heavy snowstorm? Answer: It burned down. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • When Philadelphia fell to the British in 1777, the Continental Congress met for one day, September 27, at the courthouse of which town? Answer: Lancaster. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Which college in Carlisle, founded by Benjamin Rush, was the first college founded after the Revolutionary War? Answer: Dickinson College. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Which Pennsylvania delegate was the main author of the Articles of Confederation? Answer: John Dickinson. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Which Pennsylvanian, a Lutheran minister, chaired the state's ratifying convention and became the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives? Answer: Frederick Muhlenberg. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania

Oil, coal, steel and bridges 9

  • Besides the Keystone State and the Coal State, Pennsylvania has been called by the names of two more industries. Which two? Answer: Oil and steel. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Coal has been mined in Pennsylvania since the mid-1700s. In which year did production peak? Answer: 1918. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • The former mining cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton in the northeast grew up on which kind of coal? Answer: Anthracite. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • In which city was the first nationally chartered bank in the United States founded in 1781? Answer: Philadelphia. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • The Pittsburgh Agreement, signed on May 31, 1918 by Tomáš Masaryk, concerned the independence of which country? Answer: Czechoslovakia. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Since which year has Pennsylvania been known as the Keystone State? Answer: 1802. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Which is the only national forest in Pennsylvania, established in 1923 in the northwest of the state? Answer: Allegheny National Forest. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Which Philadelphia bridge had the longest suspension span in the world when it opened on July 1, 1926? Answer: The Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Which western Pennsylvania town rose and later fell as a boom town of the oil rush in the 1800s? Answer: Titusville. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania

Borders, rivers and towns 9

  • Allentown, Bethlehem and which third city are the tri-cities of the Lehigh Valley? Answer: Easton. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Interstate 80 crosses from Pennsylvania into New Jersey at which gap? Answer: The Delaware Water Gap. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • The northern border of Pennsylvania follows 42 degrees north, except at the western end. What shape is the piece that reaches up to Lake Erie? Answer: A triangle. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Pennsylvania has cities, boroughs and townships, and just one place that is officially a town. Which is it? Answer: Bloomsburg. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Pennsylvania is the only one of the original Thirteen Colonies that does not border what? Answer: The Atlantic Ocean. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Pennsylvania reaches the Great Lakes at just one port. In which northwestern city is it? Answer: Erie. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • What do drivers commonly call the part of Interstate 476 south of the Pennsylvania Turnpike? Answer: The Blue Route. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • What is the arc that forms Pennsylvania's border with Delaware called? Answer: The Twelve-Mile Circle. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Which Pennsylvania city is home to the National Aviary? Answer: Pittsburgh. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Dutch table and some firsts 10

  • The first medical school in the nation was founded in 1765 at which university? Answer: The University of Pennsylvania. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • In Pennsylvania Dutch Country, chicken pot pie is not a baked pie. What is it? Answer: A soup made with egg noodles. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • In Pennsylvania Dutch Country, what are sand tarts? Answer: Thin cookies. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • The nation's first zoo is in which Pennsylvania city? Answer: Philadelphia. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Pennsylvania Dutch fasnachts are which kind of food? Answer: Raised doughnuts. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • The Pennsylvania Dutch hold that which New Year's Day meal brings good luck for the year ahead? Answer: Pork with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Schnitz un knepp, a Pennsylvania Dutch dish, is made of ham, dumplings and which dried fruit? Answer: Apples. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Which academy in Pennsylvania is both the first and the oldest art school in the country? Answer: The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Which of the eight Ivy League universities stands farthest south? Answer: The University of Pennsylvania. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
  • Which treat of two soft cakes with a filling is said to trace its roots to Pennsylvania Dutch Country? Answer: The whoopie pie. Source: Wikipedia: Pennsylvania
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 Pennsylvania (text under CC BY-SA 4.0), 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, current office-holders and living people, sports teams, companies and their brands, amusement parks and production rankings. Levels are our estimate. Licence: own work