Year 1 homework question stumps parents and the internet

Over 4000 adults weighed in, yet no one could agree on the answer. 

A seemingly innocent Year one homework question has stumped an entire community of parents online. 

It all went down in a Facebook group, where a mum shared her six-year-old daughter's puzzling homework task, sparking a whirlwind of theories. 

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Image: Facebook

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The question that stumped the internet

The post by the mum read:

"So... my six-year-old daughter who's in year one got this homework question. It's confusing in my opinion to say the least, especially considering the age it's aimed at... but I'd love to hear your answers!"

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She added, "I think it's something you'd find in a Puzzler magazine personally but let me know your thoughts. 

The homework question was, "Which word is odd one out?"

The words to choose from were friend, toothbrush, desk, silver, and egg.

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Theories came flooding in... and silver stood out

As expected, this question elicited thousands of different responses, from over 4000 people, each providing their unique take.

Several parents pointed to 'friend' as being the odd one out, noting that unlike the others, it's not an object.

The word 'silver' also came up a lot. Some argued it's an adjective while the others are nouns, while others said it was both a noun and an adjective.

"Silver - as it’s an adjective and the rest are nouns would be my guess although silver is a bad choice of colour as it could actually be a noun if it was a physical object. Silly question!" one person wrote.

"Silver isn’t a noun but I don’t know the context in which the homework is asking. If it’s confusing for adults it would be incredibly confusing for children," said someone else. 

A few parents agreed that 'silver' was unique, but only because it's the only colour.

Some argued for 'egg' and 'toothbrush'

Then others thought it was 'egg' as it's the only edible word. 

"Egg is the only item you can eat..." one claimed. "Not saying little people wouldn’t eat or try to eat the other objects, but they are not food."

'Toothbrush' also received attention for being the only word without an 'e', a compound word, and the only item not typically shared.

The mum then edited her post with an important update.

She revealed, "The answer the teacher gave was silver because the rest are nouns."

So there you have it! Did you get it right?

This article was updated in July 2024. 

Originally published as Year 1 homework question stumps parents and the internet