Recorded answers
2,284 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 2,284
- Condiment packetRare60points
- Cookie jarRare60points
- CorkscrewRare60points
- Corn chipRare60points
- Corn holderRare60points
- Corn huskRare60points
- CrackerRare60points
- Cracker boxRare60points
- CreamerRare60points
- CrockeryRare60points
- Cup dispenserRare60points
- Cup holderRare60points
- Cup lidRare60points
- Cup sleeveRare60points
- Cupcake standRare60points
- DecanterRare60points
- Deli containerRare60points
- Dessert bowlRare60points
- Dessert forkRare60points
- Dessert knifeRare60points
- Dessert plateRare60points
- Dessert spoonRare60points
- Deviled egg plateRare60points
- Dinner forkRare60points
- Dinner knifeRare60points
- Dinner plateRare60points
- Dinner spoonRare60points
- DinnerwareRare60points
- Dip bowlRare60points
- Disposable cupRare60points
- Disposable tablewareRare60points
- Divided bowlRare60points
- Divided plateRare60points
- Divided serving trayRare60points
- Dog bowlRare60points
- DoilyRare60points
- Drink carrierRare60points
- Drinking bowlRare60points
- DrinkwareRare60points
- Dutch ovenRare60points
- Egg cupRare60points
- Egg slicerRare60points
- Electric carving knifeRare60points
- Espresso cupRare60points
- Fish forkRare60points
- Fish knifeRare60points
- Fish platterRare60points
- Fish sliceRare60points
- FlaskRare60points
- FlatbreadRare60points
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.