November 4, 2026, Dive #112, stores 29,835 names. The longest list is “Name a sea animal that isn't a fish or a bird” (11,809 recorded) and the shortest is “Name a city with 1–10 million people (within city limits)” (699). 27,368 score 85 or higher.
Current edition7 questions · 29,835 recorded answersNext edition
29,835 recorded names27,368 at 85 or higher7 questions with an 85+ name
Read the prompt as a request for professional vocabulary instead of famous commodities. Sweep through the big families of material that come out of the earth: building and ornamental stone, industrial minerals, metallic ores, gem material, fossil material and the odd organic inclusion. Then push each family towards its narrowest recognised name, because the top of the board seems reserved for designations a mason, a geologist or a collector would use and a general reader would not. Word shape helps as a filter: plain short nouns cover the obvious substances everybody else will offer, while longer compounds with a modifier in front betray the specialist entries. Recite the alphabet mentally and note any term you half-recognise as a real material.
Get a hint
Begin with the physical act: whatever you name has to be lifted out of soil, sand or solid rock, which opens up excavation, dredging, drilling and deep-shaft extraction alike.
A little more
Then shift from common commodities to specialist vocabulary, since the reveal is dominated by terms that live in geological surveys, stone catalogues and collectors' price lists.
One step further
Favour a two- or three-word label built from a modifier plus a material, often borrowed from a colour, a texture or a place, and remember that hardened organic remains count as well.
Reveal answers 1,942
CoproliteOne in a Krillion100points
Abbey roseDeep Cut85points
Aberdeen graniteDeep Cut85points
Absolute BlackDeep Cut85points
Absolute White MarbleDeep Cut85points
Abtswind SandstoneDeep Cut85points
Academy Black graniteDeep Cut85points
Acajou gneissDeep Cut85points
AchroiteDeep Cut85points
Acquatic QuartziteDeep Cut85points
ActiniumDeep Cut85points
ActinoliteDeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
Look down the scoring column and a hierarchy emerges: broad household materials sit at the bottom, while entries lifted from trade catalogues and survey reports sit at the top. Aberdeen granite, Adnet marble and Abtswind Sandstone each collect 85 points, and the much odder Coprolite stands alone on 100. Rarity explains the gap. A common metal or a familiar fuel is chosen by thousands of players at once, so the pool of points fractures into slivers; a named variety of ornamental stone, a mineral species or a petrified organic remnant is named by almost nobody and therefore keeps the whole specialist award. The 85-point band also shows a strong grammatical habit, with modifier-plus-material labels such as Absolute Black or Alaska White appearing again and again. That shape is your best structural clue: generate candidates in that mould, even half-remembered ones, instead of retreating to the obvious substance everybody else will write.
Treat the prompt as a filter rather than a riddle. Write down every marine creature you can recall, then strike out anything with fins and gills and anything feathered, and what survives is your working list. From there, rank candidates by how easily a general audience would picture them, because popular, familiar kinds tend to appear on the board while obscure ones either miss the list entirely or sit far down it. Once you have a solid familiar pick, push one step further into the same group and try to recall a particular named kind rather than the umbrella term. Precision is what separates a mid-range answer from a top one, but only when the name is real and correctly spelled.
Get a hint
Begin with the sheer variety of ocean life that lives attached, buried or crawling rather than cruising, and list the body shapes that come to mind.
A little more
Then narrow to a group whose members wear a hard shell or a soft muscular body, the sort you notice in rock pools, on harbour walls or in the grit left by a falling tide.
One step further
Finish by recalling one particular kind within that group, an exact common name rather than the umbrella word, and make sure you can spell the descriptive part.
Reveal answers 11,809
Hoff crabOne in a Krillion100points
'coon oysterDeep Cut85points
Abalone barleysnailDeep Cut85points
Abalone piddockDeep Cut85points
Abalone visored shrimpDeep Cut85points
Abbott's ConeDeep Cut85points
Abbreviated coneDeep Cut85points
Aberrant toothshellDeep Cut85points
Abyssal crangonDeep Cut85points
Abyssal horny spongeDeep Cut85points
Abyssal murexDeep Cut85points
Abyssal sea urchinDeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
The scoring here is unusually flat: almost every recorded answer sits at 85, which tells you the judges rewarded a real, specific, correctly spelled name and stopped there. The single 100-point entry, Hoff crab, is the exception that proves the rule, an oddity memorable enough to stand out from eleven thousand competent picks. At the other end, the 348 answers on 60 points are the ones that stayed generic, a bare group word or a vague label that could cover dozens of different creatures. Between those poles, the 85-point field is dominated by precise two-word names, from the plainly descriptive Abyssal murex and Acorn barnacle to the more specialist Abalone piddock and Abalone barleysnail, and it even stretches to a marine mammal such as African Clawless Otter. The lesson is that detail pays as long as it is genuine: reaching one level below the everyday category name, and getting the spelling right, is worth far more than picking something famous.
Treat the prompt as a taxonomy exercise rather than a memory test. Sketch four or five large domains where the colour occurs without human help, namely living creatures, minerals, geological formations, celestial objects and optical effects in the atmosphere, then spend a couple of minutes listing everything you can inside each one. The second pass is where the value lies: for every general entry you write, push one level narrower, replacing a broad group with a particular member of it. Precision is what separates a crowded answer from a distinctive one. Keep a shortlist of odd, hard-to-spell names too, since obscure corners of the natural world are exactly where a puzzle like this rewards curiosity. Submit your most specific defensible pick, not your first thought.
Get a hint
Start with the broad kingdoms of life and work downward: the trait turns up in creatures of the air, the water and the leaf, so no single habitat has a monopoly on it.
A little more
Non-living nature is just as productive, since the mineral kingdom, deep geological features and deep space all supply candidates that casual players rarely consider.
One step further
For the biggest score, aim at the narrowest possible label, meaning a single species, one named formation or one particular celestial body, rather than the general family it belongs to.
Reveal answers 3,824
Marble berryOne in a Krillion100points
Aberrant oakblueDeep Cut85points
Abyss PoolDeep Cut85points
Abyssinian rollerDeep Cut85points
Acacia blueDeep Cut85points
AchernarDeep Cut85points
Achilles morphoDeep Cut85points
Acmon blueDeep Cut85points
AcrabDeep Cut85points
AcruxDeep Cut85points
AdharaDeep Cut85points
Adonis blueDeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
The reveal is enormous, 3,824 accepted answers, yet almost all of them sit in a single band: 3,646 entries earned 85 points and only 150 settled for 60. That shape tells you the puzzle rewards specificity rather than popularity. The 60-point group is the small pool of broad, obvious picks that nearly every player reaches for first, and sharing them costs you. The 85-point tier is the sweet spot, filled with precise labels that most people would never produce: Aberrant oakblue, Abyss Pool and Achernar each scored 85, along with thousands of similarly narrow names. Only one answer, Marble berry, touched 100, which suggests the top band was reserved for the single most obscure defensible entry in the set. In practice, a two-word scientific or geographic name beats a one-word everyday one, and anything a child would say in the first five seconds is almost certainly a 60.
Name an item used for eating or serving food (like a plate or spoon)
2,265 recorded answers
How to approach it
Work outward from the most ordinary kitchen drawer and keep going until the words start to feel strange. Begin with the everyday cohort almost everyone would list, since those will be there but will sit at the bottom of the scoring band. Then push into trades, institutions, religions and holiday customs, because each of those preserves implements the general public never names. Vocabulary from older periods pays especially well, as do terms borrowed from other languages for vessels that English never bothered to name. Before committing, check that the object is truly a thing you hold or set down, not a substance, a machine or a piece of furniture, and prefer the narrower name over the generic one whenever both exist.
Get a hint
Start at the table itself: everything laid out at a single place setting, then widen the sweep outward to the kitchen, the bar and the serving sideboard.
A little more
Add the pieces that never touch the diner but do the carrying: the vessels food is brought in, the stands that lift a dish, the small tools that portion out a shared plate.
One step further
Now go historical and regional: ancient ritual vessels, measuring vessels kept for medicinal use, implements built around one single ingredient, and festival wares that appear only once a year.
Reveal answers 2,265
Penny lickOne in a Krillion100points
Abalone shellDeep Cut85points
Absinthe fountainDeep Cut85points
Absinthe glassDeep Cut85points
Absinthe spoonDeep Cut85points
AbuqalDeep Cut85points
Acetabulum (vinegar cup)Deep Cut85points
Achaar daniDeep Cut85points
Adaptive cupDeep Cut85points
Adaptive utensilsDeep Cut85points
Aduno koroDeep Cut85points
AgaayaatDeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
Scoring here is driven almost entirely by obscurity, and the reveal makes the gradient unusually clean. The lone hundred-point entry, Penny lick, is a vanished street-trade object that most solvers cannot even picture, so practically nobody reaches it. The great middle tier at eighty-five points is where the contest really sits: 1824 answers, spanning archaeological vessel names, regional drinking glasses, single-ingredient service tools and ceremonial wares, all scoring alike because each is rare enough to surprise yet still a genuine implement. Abalone shell, Absinthe fountain and Asparagus tongs show how wide that band is, since a natural shell, an elaborate bar fixture and a single-purpose pair of tongs land on exactly the same mark. The 390 answers at sixty points are ordinary but still precise words, and only about fifty of the 2265 recorded answers fall below that line, which suggests the plainest everyday terms were largely filtered out before the list was built. Rarity, not usefulness, sets the price.
Name a sci-fi movie (tagged Sci-Fi on IMDb, 1,000+ votes)
4,118 recorded answers
How to approach it
Recommendation instinct needs reversing here. Rather than reaching for the celebrated titles everyone knows, assemble a private list of the strange, the cheap and the barely reviewed: late-night television films, imported genre pictures, animated oddities, unwanted sequels, anything glimpsed on a streaming shelf at three in the morning. Check each candidate against the two hard conditions before committing, since a thin vote count or a genre field lacking the tag makes a title worthless however futuristic it feels. Then rank the survivors by how unlikely another player is to name them, and spend the answer on the oddest title you can defend as genuinely eligible.
Get a hint
Bear in mind that a database label, not reputation, defines this category, so the pool holds hundreds of films nobody would bring up in an ordinary conversation.
A little more
Steer toward the edges of the catalogue: low-budget productions, regional cinema, animated features, straight-to-video entries and old black-and-white titles sit under the same tag as the blockbusters.
One step further
Once a candidate comes to mind, confirm that its vote count genuinely passes four figures and that the genre field lists the science-fiction tag explicitly, since a title that merely feels futuristic but is filed elsewhere earns nothing.
Reveal answers 4,118
Woman in the MoonOne in a Krillion100points
.com for MurderDeep Cut85points
*Batteries Not IncludedDeep Cut85points
+1Deep Cut85points
100 Million BCDeep Cut85points
12 to the MoonDeep Cut85points
12:01Deep Cut85points
1959Deep Cut85points
1984 (1956)Deep Cut85points
1990: The Bronx WarriorsDeep Cut85points
2-Headed Shark AttackDeep Cut85points
2:22Deep Cut85points
Why these answers count
The recorded pool ran to 4,118 titles, and the shape of the scoring is the lesson. A single answer reached 100 points, 3,440 sat at 85 and 547 stopped at 60, with only 130 slipping below the line, so the gap between a good result and a mediocre one was almost never validity; it was distance from the crowd's first thoughts. Titles such as Woman in the Moon (100), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916) (85), 2-Headed Shark Attack (85), *Batteries Not Included (85) and A Boy and His Dog (85) all live in the high band, and what they share is a refusal to be obvious: a silent space voyage, a remade Victorian adventure, a creature feature, a family comedy about hardware, a post-apocalyptic road movie. Franchise entries are legal but crowded, so they settle lower. Rarity, not fame, is what the leaderboard paid for.
Name a city with 1–10 million people (within city limits)
699 recorded answers
How to approach it
Work country by country rather than free-associating. Pick a handful of nations whose urban networks you know reasonably well, and for each one list municipalities in the target band from memory: the second-tier industrial centres, the provincial capitals, the port and river cities. Keep a strict mental boundary between the city proper and the wider metro area, because the second figure is usually far larger and will tempt you into the wrong range. Then sanity-check each candidate against the population band before committing. Once the obvious names are exhausted, push into regions the average player rarely reaches; the scoring system rewards picks that few other entrants made, so breadth of geography matters more than depth in any single country.
Get a hint
Start from countries with very large urban populations, then think of individual municipalities inside them rather than of the whole built-up area around a core.
A little more
Mid-sized regional capitals and industrial or port cities are fertile ground, especially where administrative borders absorbed surrounding districts as the city grew.
One step further
Look beyond the obvious giants: a name sitting just under the ten-million mark, or a fast-expanding city in a densely settled river plain, is often the kind of entry a crowd overlooks.
Reveal answers 699
HulunbuirOne in a Krillion100points
AdanaDeep Cut85points
AguascalientesDeep Cut85points
AhvazDeep Cut85points
AligarhDeep Cut85points
AnkangDeep Cut85points
AnqingDeep Cut85points
AnshanDeep Cut85points
AnshunDeep Cut85points
AntalyaDeep Cut85points
AnyangDeep Cut85points
ArequipaDeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
The reveal shows what the scoring curve actually rewards. Only one entry reached the top band at 100 points, so the perfect pick was something almost nobody else thought of, while 526 answers landed at 85 and 123 at 60. That middle tier is where most competent players ended up: solid, recognisable secondary cities such as Adana, Antalya, Bursa or Konya in one country, or Bandung, Bogor and Bekasi in another, all correct and all common enough to be shared by many entrants. Lower scores went to the names that come to mind first, the biggest and most famous cities inside the range, which nearly everyone writes down. The lesson is that accuracy alone puts you at 85; rarity is what pushes a correct answer toward the ceiling. Hulunbuir at 100 is the clearest illustration: a large municipal population attached to a name that rarely surfaces in quizzes, so almost no one duplicated it. Picking a well-known city is safe but capped; picking an obscure but genuinely qualifying one is the only route to the top.
A productive route runs through technique rather than through a memorized list of famous sweets. Ask which mixtures are stiff enough to hold a shape: enriched yeasted ones, short crumbly ones, laminated ones, stretched ones, and plain flour-and-water ones sweetened only at the end. For each technique, sweep the world's baking cultures mentally and let each one suggest its own small named specialties, including festival items, monastery and bakery traditions, and names that survive in minority dialects. Because scoring rewards rarity, deliberately skip the half-dozen globally famous items and hunt for the local, the seasonal and the obscure. Spelling variants are usually accepted, so write whatever form you know and keep going until you have a dozen candidates to choose from.
Get a hint
Start from the broad family of sweet foods built on a workable, flour-based mixture, and picture the many world cuisines that have their own version of it.
A little more
Narrow it down by preparation: the mixture must be shaped by hand — rolled, twisted, stamped or folded — before it meets the heat, whether oven, griddle or oil.
One step further
Aim for the smaller and more local end of the spectrum: named regional sweets, festival specialties and long-standing shop items score better than the everyday staples everybody thinks of.
Reveal answers 5,178
Mock apple pieOne in a Krillion100points
'NfocacattiDeep Cut85points
'NzuddiDeep Cut85points
'NzulliniDeep Cut85points
Aachener PrintenDeep Cut85points
AachtchenDeep Cut85points
AardbeienslofDeep Cut85points
AardbeienvlaaiDeep Cut85points
AbambarDeep Cut85points
AbanicoDeep Cut85points
Abar khaboDeep Cut85points
AbarankiDeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
The reveal shows a steep pyramid: one single entry took the top 100-point tier, 4716 entries landed at 85 and 411 at 60. That shape tells you the scoring engine already expected this to be an easy, wide-open category, so almost everything recognizable settles into the middle band. The sole 100-point answer, Mock apple pie, is the outlier — familiar as a concept but unusual as a written guess, which is exactly what pushes a response above the crowd. The 85 band is where the long tail of regional and minority-language sweets lives: 'Nfocacatti, 'Nzuddi, 'Nzullini, Aachener Printen and Aachtchen all sit there, and so do hundreds of similarly obscure names. The 60-point floor is reserved for the handful of defaults, the obvious everyday items most players type first. Practical lesson: an obscure but genuine regional name beats a famous one by 25 points, and a clean, recognized spelling is what keeps a guess on the board.
Krillion