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Word that Comes Before #1

We give you three words. You give us the word that comes before all three.
For example, "World, Testament, Spice" = "Old"
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: December 2, 2019
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First submittedMay 17, 2013
Times taken32,658
Average score61.9%
Rating4.24
4:00
Enter word here:
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 / 21 guessed
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Word
Precedes These
Steel
Magnolias, Guitar, Wool
Oil
Embargo, Lamp, Change
Mountain
Lion, Bike, Dew
Fire
Fighter, Ant, Hydrant
Water
Softener, Chestnut, Lily
Square
Meal, Root, Knot
Science
Fiction, Fair, Experiment
Word
Precedes These
Wood
Chipper, Stove, Flooring
Hard
Candy, Rock, Drive
Rock
Bottom, Candy, Lobster
Night
Terrors, Vision, Owl
Carpet
Bagger, Bombing, Sample
Gold
Rush, Nugget, Digger
Wax
Museum, Lips, Poetic
Word
Precedes These
False
Teeth, Humility, Positive
Slow
Cooker, Motion, Poke
Good
Deed, Gravy, Friday
Deep
Fryer, Space, Thoughts
Iron
Chef, Fist, Curtain
Ice
Age, Cube, Fishing
Hot
Chocolate, Dog, Rod
53 Comments
+6
Level 92
May 20, 2013
Nice quiz!
+5
Level 73
Jul 20, 2013
Excellent quiz. Just the right amount of head scratching :)
+1
Level 37
Jul 20, 2013
Agreed - I got the meal/root/knot at the last second... I don't know why it was so difficult now.
+2
Level 76
Jul 20, 2013
Good quiz - missed oil, wax and false. Easy when you see the answers :)
+1
Level 69
Jul 21, 2013
Fun quiz!
+1
Level 36
Aug 23, 2013
It was a good quiz. It did it's job....made you think. Got 18 out of 21.
+2
Level 57
Mar 19, 2014
I've never heard half of these. Square meal? Wax poetic? False positive? Wax lips? Steel magnolias?
+2
Level 45
Aug 20, 2014
Wax lips are just fake lips, square meal... not sure what that means, but it's supposed to be pretty common. 'Wax' can also mean 'to grow' or 'to become'. So to 'wax poetic' would mean to 'become poetic', like if somebody suddenly started speaking all soft and eloquent and romantic. False positive is when a test(usually medical)indicates that something is there, like a test could indicate you have cancer(hence the positive), but you actually don't(hence the false). Steel Magnolias is a movie.
+1
Level 55
Oct 2, 2015
I'm pretty sure the phrase "square meal" predates the concept of food groups.
+1
Level 51
Oct 5, 2015
Square meal came from the practice on board sailing ships of serving meals on square wooden plates. But I never heard of "Slow Poke"
+1
Level 74
Oct 7, 2015
Slow poke is someone who is moving slowly. My older brothers used to yell at me, "Hurry up, Slow Poke!" When I was a kid in the 1950s there was a candy called Slo Poke. It was similar to a Sugar Daddy sucker and it t took a long time to eat it.
+1
Level 58
Jan 13, 2017
Or the waxing and waning of the moon.
+2
Level 72
Oct 8, 2019
Square meal does not come from square plates in the navy. That is a folk etymology. The term wasnt mentioned before mid 1800s (earliest written sources are from mining towns in the US), if it had come from that source, there would have been much earlier mentions in the extensive ships logs.

Plus the term square allready existed with the meaning honest, fair (it still lives on in fair and square) Shakespeare also used it. Square meaning fair is similarly formed to the word right meaning correct. (straight, even)

+1
Level 16
Jul 2, 2021
if you haven't heard of false positives, you haven't read much about covid testing (though false negatives are - methinks -much more common and worrisome)
+1
Level 80
Sep 1, 2023
considering it was written in 2014, it'd be more surprising if they had read about covid testing
+1
Level 70
Sep 1, 2014
100% with 1:03 left.
+1
Level 74
Oct 7, 2015
1:30. Fun quiz.
+1
Level 77
Apr 28, 2015
water bagger, water bombing, water sample
+3
Level 61
Oct 3, 2015
What the heck is a water bagger?
+1
Level 72
Oct 8, 2019
well what the heck is a carpet bagger or bomber. Carpet does not seem to be something that needs to be bagged or bombed (unless it is roach infested perhaps). Water bagger doesnt look weird to me but that is because my subconscious reads it as the dutch translation, where bagger can mean dredger (and the dredge it dredges aswell...)>

As an english word, machines actually exist that bag water. Bagged water is there for multiple purposes, the same as bottle water, or to put in the freezer to make ice cubes, aree the most known ones I think.

+6
Level 83
Jul 2, 2021
Maybe look up carpetbagger and carpet bombing before making comments like this? They're both actual things, the fact that you personally are ignorant of them doesn't change that.
+1
Level 73
Jul 2, 2021
A carpetbagger is someone who joins something purely for financial gain (or political gain I believe in the US). In the UK it was a common term in the early 90s to describe somebody who would join a mutual building society by opening an account in the hope that they would receive a payout when it was demutualised
+1
Level 53
Jul 2, 2021
Yes, in the U.S. it describes someone who moves to a new state specifically for political means, basically what Hillary Clinton did when she became a "New Yorker" so she could run in an election.
+1
Level 74
Oct 2, 2015
What does 'false positive' mean?
+2
Level 92
Oct 2, 2015
+1
Level 66
Jul 2, 2021
What does smug mean?
+1
Level 55
Oct 2, 2015
smartcookie17 included a description in their answer to Symmetrik's question.
+1
Level 66
Oct 3, 2015
This is one of those quizzes where I would like to see a log of answers that people tried. I kept typing answers that would go with one of the words and would make hilarious combinations with the remaining two...

14/21

+1
Level 39
Oct 3, 2015
I got them all quickly except for 'oil', which I just couldn't come up with. I did, however, try - along with many other fails - small, street, lava, cool, no, gas and chump.
+4
Level 61
Oct 3, 2015
My brother tried "dirty" for deed/gravy/Friday. But I think the funniest thing is some of the clues themselves, said without commas. Candy Rock Drive sounds like the main road through the Big Rock Candy Mountains, Cooker Motion Poke sounds like Cook her Motion Poke which sounds dirty, Lion Bike Dew creates an awesome image, Bottom Candy Lobster sounds like an STD, Rush Nugget Digger sounds like a wrestling move, Chef Fist Curtain sounds either violent or sexual, and Chocolate Dog Rod, well...that one made me bust out laughing.
+1
Level 55
Oct 3, 2015
The only one I thought of as a whole was the Candy Rock Drive, which made me immediately think of Big Rock Candy Mountain as well. But the rest I never would have thought of. Totally made me laugh out loud though with some of your interpretations! Especially Bottom Candy Lobster....dear God. TMI!! Haha.
+1
Level 61
Oct 15, 2015
Yay! Friend!
+1
Level 65
Oct 5, 2015
Thank you Family Guy for helping me get the Rock Lobster clue.
+1
Level 70
May 12, 2016
I was too slow to type "slow." Only one I missed.
+1
Level 69
Jul 9, 2016
Awesome quiz!
+1
Level 50
Jan 28, 2019
Good gravy? Who says that? Had to put urine sample..just had to
+1
Level 76
Jan 16, 2020
I'm not sure what 'good gravy' is, or why you would say 'hard candy' when all candy is hard
+1
Level 67
Jul 2, 2021
In US hard candy usually refers to those individually wrapped small pieces that you have to suck on vs. chocolate candy bars.

There is also a movie called Hard Candy.

Good gravy is an English expression of surprise.

+3
Level 83
Jul 2, 2021
I think "good gravy" is American. I don't think I've ever heard it used in the UK anyway.
+2
Level 49
Jul 5, 2021
I've never heard anyone say good gravy in the UK.
+1
Level 85
Mar 14, 2023
You must be thinking of good gracious.
+1
Level 79
Feb 18, 2021
Any chance of accepting Black for Chocolate, Dog, Rod?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_chocolate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_dog

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Rod

+4
Level 86
Jul 2, 2021
Have you ever heard dark chocolate called black chocolate? I haven't.
+2
Level 75
Jul 2, 2021
I love the petitions for alternative answers in the chats of these quizzes :) There's a song that suits them pretty well...

Meat Loaf - Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad

+1
Level 83
Jul 2, 2021
This made me chuckle.
+1
Level 85
Jul 2, 2021
Hey, that was my wedding song.
+1
Level 78
May 25, 2022
You picked a song about not being in love as your wedding song?
+1
Level 59
Jul 2, 2021
What in the world are steel magnolias?
+1
Level 61
Jul 2, 2021
Steel Magnolias is the name of a famous movie and play. They don't exist in the wild xD
+1
Level 61
Mar 26, 2024
Come to the Deep South and you’ll meet some true steel magnolias! Here in Atlanta, they weigh 92 lbs, drive gigantic SUVs, do yoga, have six kids, have their own secret bank account courtesy Momma and Daddy, and may or may not have buried a body when they were in a sorority at Ole Miss.
+1
Level 43
Jul 2, 2021
I tried guessing the wrong "age" and accidentally got an answer to a different clue!
+1
Level 90
Aug 18, 2021
These ones are very hard for UK English speakers, just guessing from one or two clues here
+1
Level 85
Mar 14, 2023
The candy, poke, gravy, chef, and possibly the ant are clearly US/other specific but I thought the rest were common to the UK.