October 27, 2026, Dive #104, stores 4,106 names. The longest list is “Name a bird that lives in or by water” (1,461 recorded) and the shortest is “Name a country whose flag has a white stripe down or across the middle” (42). 3,272 score 85 or higher.
Current edition7 questions · 4,106 recorded answersNext edition
4,106 recorded names3,272 at 85 or higher7 questions with an 85+ name
Water type is a better starting point than vocabulary. Sketch the habitats on a page first — open sea, tidal mudflat, marsh, fast river, still lake, flooded pasture — and only then walk through the families that make a living in each one. Whole clusters arrive fast: birds that dive for fish, birds that wade on long legs, birds that paddle, birds that pick along the shoreline, birds that hide in reeds. Once those groups are written down, convert the vague ones into exact species names. Compound, hyphenated and geographically qualified names each count as a single entry, and the longer, more precise forms are usually the ones that fewer players reach. Keep going until every family is exhausted, then scan the list for near-duplicates before submitting.
Get a hint
Sort by habitat before you sort by name: salt water, brackish estuary, freshwater marsh, fast river, still lake and seasonal floodplain each recruit their own specialists, and that grid alone produces dozens of candidates.
A little more
Then tour the families one at a time — plunge-divers, long-legged waders, paddling waterfowl, shoreline scavengers, reed-bed skulkers — and give each group a few minutes rather than jumping between them.
One step further
Finally push past the everyday labels toward full species names, including hyphenated, possessive and geographically qualified forms, because that precision is what separates a crowded guess from a scarce, high-scoring entry.
Reveal answers 1,461
SungrebeOne in a Krillion100points
Abbott's BoobyDeep Cut85points
Abdim's storkDeep Cut85points
African black duckDeep Cut85points
African crakeDeep Cut85points
African darterDeep Cut85points
African finfootDeep Cut85points
African fish eagleDeep Cut85points
African gooseDeep Cut85points
African Grass OwlDeep Cut85points
African jacanaDeep Cut85points
African marsh harrierDeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
Points measure how many other players typed the same string, not how worthy the bird is. Familiar swimming birds and the big coastal scavengers are reachable by anyone, so those entries cluster in the low bands and plenty never clear the threshold at all. The 85-point tier absorbed 1,371 of the 1,446 qualifying answers, and that is where deliberate species names sit, the ones you only find by working through a family rather than grabbing the first thing that comes to mind. Look at the texture of that band: Andean Avocet (85), Baikal teal (85), Craveri's Murrelet (85). Apostrophes, qualifiers and odd compounds are the fingerprint of a name most people would not produce under time pressure. The lone 100-point answer, Sungrebe, shows the extreme case: short, easy to say, and almost nobody's opening thought. Rarity here means rare at the kitchen table, not rare in a field guide. Trade breadth for specificity: an exact species name outranks a generic family word every time.
Name something with physical pages (named works don't count)
413 recorded answers
How to approach it
Treat the prompt as a definition rather than a riddle: fix the two conditions first, several leaves plus some fastening, then generate candidates by walking through spheres of activity one at a time. Go around the house, then a workplace, then a hospital, a court, a government office, a school, a place of worship, a sports club, a building site, a vehicle. In each setting ask what gets written down, certified, handed over or kept for years, and whether the result is paginated. Write every candidate down even when it feels dull, because plainness is not penalised. Afterwards sort the list by how unusual each object is, keep the widest spread of spheres, and submit the strangest entries that clearly satisfy both conditions instead of a cluster of near-synonyms.
Get a hint
Start with the plainest possible reading: anything whose usefulness depends on being a stack of paper leaves in a fixed order, held together well enough that the sequence survives repeated handling.
A little more
Widen by setting rather than by object: household admin, professional practice, bureaucracy, law, worship, sport, travel, hobbies, and ask what written material each of those worlds produces that has to be paginated.
One step further
Then narrow towards the less obvious end: things issued to one person, kept as a record across years, filled in by hand, or carried about while travelling, objects that exist only because someone must show or preserve their pages.
Reveal answers 413
Summit registerOne in a Krillion100points
Abstract of titleDeep Cut85points
Accident bookDeep Cut85points
Accordion bookDeep Cut85points
Adventure moduleDeep Cut85points
AffidavitDeep Cut85points
AhnenpassDeep Cut85points
Aircraft checklistDeep Cut85points
AnnualDeep Cut85points
Apartheid pass bookDeep Cut85points
Appraisal reportDeep Cut85points
Approach platesDeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
The reveal accepted 413 answers, and 354 of them cleared the 60-point floor, which says the graders rewarded breadth: almost anything genuinely paginated was let through. Points then scaled with how rarely an object is offered. The lone 100-point entry, Summit register (100), is exactly the sort of thing most players never think of, yet it meets the definition perfectly. The crowded 85 band, which holds 233 accepted answers and where Abstract of title (85) and Accident book (85) sit, is full of specialised paperwork from law, medicine, transport and administration, objects that unmistakably bear pages but live outside ordinary conversation. The 60-point tier reads as the familiar end of the field, the volumes a household or a school owns without ever thinking about them. Rarity, not quality, moved the score: a mundane object with a narrow, specific identity outran a common one, and a truly unexpected entry took the top slot alone.
Work outward from your own routine rather than chasing clever one-offs. List the rooms, tools and occasions of a normal week, then ask whether a round object plays a part: something that rolls, weighs down, seals, polishes, decorates or marks a moment. Because the wording only demands a non-sporting kind, ordinary domestic and workshop vocabulary is fertile ground and usually overlooked. After that first sweep, move to fields you know less well, including crafts, industrial fittings, folk customs, formal social occasions, regional cookery and children's playthings, and test compounds where the word sits at the front or the back. Write down more candidates than you need and keep the ones you can define in one line, because a crisp definition is what separates an entry from a guess.
Get a hint
Start with the settings you move through in a week: a home, a workshop, a kitchen, a garden, a celebration. Each of them hides several entries built on the same short word.
A little more
Then think about shape and function: small round things that roll, weigh, seal, clean, decorate or signal. The term covers both the solid sphere and the job it is given.
One step further
Push finally into less obvious trades and pastimes: technical fittings, craft techniques, named social occasions, old-fashioned sweets and toys. The rarer the corner, the higher the score.
Reveal answers 344
Time ballOne in a Krillion100points
Activity ballDeep Cut85points
Aniseed ballDeep Cut85points
Antenna ballDeep Cut85points
Bachelor and spinster ballDeep Cut85points
Bagatelle ballDeep Cut85points
Bait ballDeep Cut85points
Bal blancDeep Cut85points
Ball lensDeep Cut85points
Ball lightningDeep Cut85points
Ball of the hipDeep Cut85points
Ball of the shoulderDeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
Scoring rewards reach over obviousness. The lone hundred-point entry, Time ball (100), belongs to a narrow technical custom that almost nobody reaches, so guesses never pile onto it. Beneath it sits a dense band at 85 points, and the variety is striking: Ball lightning and Buckyball (85 each) come from science, Tea ball and Matzo ball (85 each) from the kitchen, while dozens more arrive from crafts, clothing, machinery, ceremonies and regional baking. Those picks share a precise, settled name and a thing you can picture in one line, yet none is the first phrase a casual player writes down. Familiar, generic ideas, the plain toy or the plain decorative sphere, collected many identical guesses and therefore settled lower, because points scale with how thinly a correct answer is spread across the field. Rarer but still legitimate wording wins; vagueness is what costs.
Name a boy band or girl group with over 500,000 monthly listeners on Spotify
534 recorded answers
How to approach it
Work outward from the streaming platform itself. Open artist pages for acts you already know are groups, note the monthly listener number, and keep a running list of anything comfortably past the threshold. Then widen by association: producers, idols, labels and playlist placements lead to sibling acts that never crossed into mainstream coverage. Regional charts and fan wikis are useful for names, but the listener figure has to come from the platform. Because the question allows any group anywhere, breadth beats depth; aim to name dozens of plausible acts quickly rather than perfecting a handful. Verify each one's group status and listener count before committing, and prefer entries you suspect most players will overlook.
Get a hint
Start from the wide landscape of vocal groups rather than individual stars: the pool is enormous, and the hundreds of accepted picks show how many corners of pop it covers.
A little more
Lean toward acts with a dedicated fandom rather than household fame: idol-system groups, second-tier chart regulars and regional pop crews often clear the streaming threshold with little mainstream press.
One step further
Check the monthly listener figure on the platform's own artist page, and favour groups whose catalogue is still in active rotation over veterans riding a single nostalgia spike.
Reveal answers 534
MoKenStefOne in a Krillion100points
&TEAMDeep Cut85points
=LOVEDeep Cut85points
1:43Deep Cut85points
2 Brothers on the 4th FloorDeep Cut85points
2 UnlimitedDeep Cut85points
2AMDeep Cut85points
4*TOWNDeep Cut85points
4EVEDeep Cut85points
5sta FamilyDeep Cut85points
702Deep Cut85points
A R I Z O N ADeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
The reveal skews heavily toward groups that are famous inside a fandom or a region but invisible to general audiences, and that is exactly where the points sit. The single 100-point entry, MoKenStef, is a nineties act remembered for one hit, so almost nobody thinks of it first. The 85-point tier is the real sweet spot and it is full of names like &TEAM, =LOVE, 1:43 and 2 Unlimited: acts with real streaming volume but little crossover recognition. The 135 answers at 60 points tend to be the ones that come to mind fastest, the groups a casual player can name in ten seconds, which is precisely why the crowd converged on them and the scoring trimmed their value. Rarer picks earn more because points scale with how few players land on the same entry, so an obscure but verifiable group beats an obvious one every time. The lesson is to trade recognisability for specificity while staying inside the listener threshold.
Name a part of the school year (events like prom count too)
559 recorded answers
How to approach it
A workable route is to build the answer list from functions instead of from memory of one country's timetable. Sketch four buckets on paper: stretches of teaching, windows reserved for assessment, breaks that interrupt lessons, and ceremonies that mark entry, transition or departure. Then walk each bucket through the age range, from the first year of primary schooling to the final year of secondary, because many labels attach to a specific stage. After that, sweep through languages and regions you know even loosely, since the puzzle rewards local terminology. Before submitting, check that each candidate is genuinely a named segment or event, not a generic word like term or holiday, and that two candidates are not simply variants of the same thing. Keep spellings accurate and prefer the form used locally.
Get a hint
Start from the shape of the year itself: it is sliced into teaching stretches, pauses and closing rituals, and every education system labels those slices differently.
A little more
Narrow by function rather than by name: some labels describe when lessons happen, others when knowledge is tested, and others when the community gathers to mark a beginning or an end.
One step further
Push toward the most local and ceremonial edges of the calendar, including rites reserved for final-year pupils, entry and leaving examinations, and multi-day festivities that stop normal lessons.
Reveal answers 559
Raisin weekendOne in a Krillion100points
11-plusDeep Cut85points
AbiturDeep Cut85points
ACT WorkKeysDeep Cut85points
Advanced HighersDeep Cut85points
Advanced Subjects TestDeep Cut85points
Advising weekDeep Cut85points
Affinity graduationDeep Cut85points
ANBKDeep Cut85points
Anything but a backpack dayDeep Cut85points
April holidaysDeep Cut85points
AS-levelsDeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
The scoring spread here is almost entirely about specificity. The single 100-point entry, Raisin weekend, is a tradition known to students of one institution, so only one player in the whole field could reach for it. The 85-point tier is crowded with two kinds of answer: national examination brands such as Abitur and Advanced Highers, and locally named calendar events such as Class Day. Each is precise, verifiable and shared by a real school culture, yet rare enough that most players never think of it. The 388 answers sitting there show how deep the well of regional terminology is. The 60-point band, by contrast, collected the broadest and most obvious choices, the ones nearly everyone in the room can name within seconds, so the scoring rules pay them less. The lesson is that recall of a general category is worth little; locating the exact institutional label, spelled correctly, is what separates a mid-range answer from a top one.
Name a country whose flag has a white stripe down or across the middle
42 recorded answers
How to approach it
Work from structure rather than memory. Picture the standard flag layouts, horizontal tricolour, vertical tricolour, bands with a hoist wedge, bands plus a central emblem, and ask of each whether a white strip could pass through the centre of the rectangle. Then test candidates against the wording: the strip has to be part of the field, wide enough to read as a stripe, and it has to sit in the middle, not at the top, the bottom or the hoist. Reject anything where white shows up only inside a coat of arms, a star, a crescent or a piece of lettering. Finally, sort what remains into the obvious picks and the obscure ones, and write down the obscure ones first, because they are what the scoring rewards.
Get a hint
Think in terms of flag geometry rather than geography: which layouts put a band of colour straight through the middle of the rectangle, dividing it into two halves that mirror each other?
A little more
Narrow the field to flags whose central band is the lightest of the three, usually sitting between two darker or more saturated stripes above and below, or to the left and right.
One step further
Once you have a shortlist, lean toward the less obvious entries: the flags everyone learns first are exactly the ones that pay least, while unusual picks are where the rare, high-scoring answers sit.
Reveal answers 42
LesothoOne in a Krillion100points
El SalvadorDeep Cut85points
Equatorial GuineaDeep Cut85points
KuwaitDeep Cut85points
LatviaDeep Cut85points
LiberiaDeep Cut85points
LuxembourgDeep Cut85points
NicaraguaDeep Cut85points
NigerDeep Cut85points
ParaguayDeep Cut85points
Sierra LeoneDeep Cut85points
SudanDeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
The reveal splits along familiarity lines. A white central band is such a common flag device that most solvers reach first for the names they have seen a hundred times, and those settle at the bottom: Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Peru and Uruguay all landed at 60. A larger middle tier did better: El Salvador, Kuwait, Latvia, Luxembourg, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Uzbekistan and Yemen scored 85, still recognisable but a step less automatic, which is precisely the premium the scoring pays for. Only one answer broke away: Lesotho at 100, the single top-scoring entry in the whole reveal. Its flag treats the white as a narrow central band rather than the broad half-and-half arrangement people picture, so it rewards someone thinking about proportion instead of reciting a list. The pattern is that the layout matters less than how fast the average solver's memory produces the name, and the rarest correct name wins.
Treat this as a breadth exercise rather than a single lookup. First list the obvious sub-categories of things people consume: drinks hot and cold, distilled and fermented; breads; preserved vegetables and pickles; cured and air-dried proteins; dairy; sweets, ices and pastries; fried street snacks; condiments and pastes. Then work region by region through less-translated cuisines, because the accepted pool is dominated by loanwords English borrowed and never renamed. For each candidate check that it is one word and that an accepted transliteration exists with the required opening letters. Where a name has competing spellings, submit the rarer but attested one. Rarity is the whole game: a staple everyone will think of earns a fraction of what an obscure regional speciality does, so push past your first ten ideas before settling.
Get a hint
Broaden the frame past your own kitchen and supermarket: think of the whole edible world, then of loanwords English adopted without ever translating them.
A little more
Preservation and street food are rich seams: fermentation, drying, curing, pickling, distilling, griddle breads, iced sweets and fried snacks all hide single-word names.
One step further
Then fine-tune the spelling, because many accepted forms are transliterations carrying accents, diaereses or aspirated consonants, so try minor variants and diminutives before discarding a candidate.
Reveal answers 753
ChhurpiOne in a Krillion100points
ChảDeep Cut85points
ChaapDeep Cut85points
ChaasDeep Cut85points
ChabaaDeep Cut85points
ChabelaDeep Cut85points
ChabichouDeep Cut85points
ChabisDeep Cut85points
ChablaisDeep Cut85points
ChacáDeep Cut85points
ChacalesDeep Cut85points
ChacareroDeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
The reveal is unusually flat, and that shape is the lesson. Of 753 recorded answers, 721 cleared sixty points, but 673 of those sat on exactly eighty-five, with a single answer taking the hundred and forty-seven landing on sixty; thirty-two fell below the bar entirely. So the scoring rewarded being recorded far more than being clever: once a pick was recognised as a genuine one-word item with those opening letters, it was pushed into the same band as almost everything else. The lone maximum went to Chhurpi, a rock-hard dried dairy product from Himalayan herding cultures, the kind of answer almost nobody produces. Below it, Chả and Chaas and Chacolí illustrate the same principle in graded form: each is a real regional term, yet each sits at eighty-five because hundreds of other regional terms were equally real. The logic behind the band is familiarity: points track how few rivals land on the same string, so the deepest cuts of the map pay best while the shared vocabulary of the crowd pays least.
Krillion