The most-missed elements

The 2026 Element Miss List

Name: The 2026 Element Miss List
Creator: Periodic Mole
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Which of the 118 elements can people actually name? This page counts every legitimate answer given on Periodic Mole — start with the periodic table quiz. So far: 15,002 answers — 11,841 from gameplay, 3,161 from the quiz.

Take the quiz Download the data (Excel)How the numbers work

Data licensed CC BY 4.0 — free to reuse with credit to Periodic Mole and a link back to this page.

The leaderboard

Every element, ranked by real answers — typed quiz answers and in-game identification alike. Quiz answers count once per element per device per day; game answers tally every attempt, the way learning actually happens.

All 118 elements · sorted by miss rate

#
1	Protactinium	91	141	79	62	44%	palladium (11)
2	Flerovium	114	104	64	40	38%	fluorine (3)
3	Praseodymium	59	151	94	57	38%	phosphorus
4	Darmstadtium	110	111	71	40	36%	dysprosium (2)
5	Thulium	69	130	84	46	35%	tantalum
6	Moscovium	115	112	73	39	35%
7	Rhenium	75	117	77	40	34%
8	Nihonium	113	98	67	31	32%
9	Mendelevium	101	100	71	29	29%	molybdenum (3)
10	Promethium	61	83	59	24	29%	lead
11	Seaborgium	106	87	62	25	29%
12	Ruthenium	44	120	86	34	28%	rutherfordium (6)
13	Dysprosium	66	88	64	24	27%
14	Meitnerium	109	78	57	21	27%
15	Gadolinium	64	93	68	25	27%
16	Curium	96	83	61	22	27%	californium
17	Copernicium	112	88	65	23	26%	carbon
18	Terbium	65	89	66	23	26%
19	Thallium	81	105	78	27	26%	tellurium (2)
20	Dubnium	105	86	64	22	26%	darmstadtium
21	Arsenic	33	96	72	24	25%	astatine (3)
22	Bohrium	107	89	67	22	25%
23	Astatine	85	102	77	25	25%	actinium
24	Tin	50	131	99	32	24%	selenium (2)
25	Livermorium	116	86	65	21	24%	lawrencium
26	Lawrencium	103	100	76	24	24%	lutetium
27	Phosphorus	15	144	110	34	24%
28	Tennessine	117	85	65	20	24%
29	Fermium	100	86	66	20	23%
30	Lutetium	71	79	61	18	23%
31	Tellurium	52	88	68	20	23%	terbium
32	Neodymium	60	97	75	22	23%
33	Roentgenium	111	93	72	21	23%
34	Technetium	43	89	69	20	22%
35	Tantalum	73	85	66	19	22%
36	Actinium	89	85	66	19	22%
37	Scandium	21	86	67	19	22%
38	Einsteinium	99	82	64	18	22%
39	Thorium	90	92	72	20	22%	thallium
40	Rubidium	37	107	84	23	21%
41	Antimony	51	107	84	23	21%	seaborgium
42	Manganese	25	100	79	21	21%	magnesium (3)
43	Mercury	80	97	77	20	21%
44	Ytterbium	70	93	74	19	20%
45	Strontium	38	100	80	20	20%	samarium
46	Holmium	67	85	68	17	20%
47	Hassium	108	88	71	17	19%
48	Rutherfordium	104	78	63	15	19%
49	Berkelium	97	89	72	17	19%
50	Nobelium	102	85	69	16	19%	nitrogen
51	Samarium	62	101	82	19	19%	tin
52	Neptunium	93	81	66	15	19%
53	Sodium	11	406	332	74	18%
54	Cerium	58	83	68	15	18%	cesium (2)
55	Cadmium	48	96	79	17	18%
56	Plutonium	94	75	62	13	17%
57	Californium	98	81	67	14	17%
58	Molybdenum	42	94	78	16	17%	moscovium
59	Palladium	46	94	78	16	17%	lead
60	Radium	88	94	78	16	17%	radon (10)
61	Erbium	68	89	74	15	17%	europium (2)
62	Barium	56	98	82	16	16%
63	Oganesson	118	86	72	14	16%
64	Rhodium	45	93	78	15	16%
65	Niobium	41	100	84	16	16%	nobelium (2)
66	Hafnium	72	82	69	13	16%
67	Radon	86	101	85	16	16%	rhenium
68	Lanthanum	57	86	73	13	15%	lawrencium
69	Yttrium	39	100	85	15	15%	ytterbium (2)
70	Silver	47	108	92	16	15%	argon (2)
71	Vanadium	23	102	87	15	15%
72	Bismuth	83	102	87	15	15%
73	Potassium	19	116	99	17	15%	sodium
74	Zinc	30	102	88	14	14%
75	Osmium	76	81	70	11	14%
76	Europium	63	89	77	12	13%	gold
77	Polonium	84	90	78	12	13%	potassium (2)
78	Krypton	36	98	85	13	13%	potassium
79	Americium	95	83	72	11	13%	aluminum
80	Indium	49	91	79	12	13%
81	Platinum	78	101	88	13	13%	plutonium (2)
82	Zirconium	40	103	90	13	13%	zinc
83	Fluorine	9	371	325	46	12%	iron
84	Boron	5	355	311	44	12%	barium (2)
85	Cesium	55	81	71	10	12%	cobalt
86	Nitrogen	7	362	319	43	12%	nickel
87	Titanium	22	93	82	11	12%	tin (3)
88	Bromine	35	119	105	14	12%	barium
89	Iodine	53	106	94	12	11%	indium
90	Francium	87	98	87	11	11%	flerovium
91	Chromium	24	107	95	12	11%
92	Carbon	6	377	336	41	11%	calcium
93	Lead	82	102	91	11	11%
94	Beryllium	4	362	323	39	11%	berkelium
95	Gallium	31	106	95	11	10%
96	Cobalt	27	98	88	10	10%	copper (3)
97	Iron	26	108	97	11	10%
98	Sulfur	16	123	111	12	10%	sodium
99	Silicon	14	124	112	12	10%
100	Chlorine	17	127	115	12	9%
101	Neon	10	374	340	34	9%
102	Calcium	20	126	115	11	9%	carbon
103	Selenium	34	92	84	8	9%
104	Magnesium	12	396	362	34	9%	manganese (2)
105	Iridium	77	83	76	7	8%	iron (2)
106	Germanium	32	95	87	8	8%
107	Hydrogen	1	401	371	30	7%
108	Tungsten	74	97	90	7	7%
109	Uranium	92	93	87	6	6%
110	Nickel	28	117	110	7	6%	nitrogen (2)
111	Xenon	54	90	85	5	6%	zinc
112	Helium	2	356	338	18	5%	nitrogen
113	Copper	29	120	114	6	5%	curium
114	Argon	18	121	116	5	4%	arsenic
115	Gold	79	135	130	5	4%
116	Lithium	3	380	368	12	3%
117	Oxygen	8	395	383	12	3%
118	Aluminum	13	118	115	3	3%

Lookup demand

The quiz measures what people can name. This table measures what they look up: monthly views of each element's Wikipedia article, next to monthly searches for the element's name where we track it as a keyword. Views and searches are different units, so they stay in separate columns.

Element	Wikipedia views / month	Search volume / month
Au Gold	60,706	not tracked
Hg Mercury	47,885	not tracked
W Tungsten	45,683	not tracked
Al Aluminum	45,269	not tracked
Cu Copper	42,562	not tracked
H Hydrogen	41,961	not tracked
O Oxygen	41,317	not tracked
Ag Silver	37,918	not tracked
Fe Iron	36,815	not tracked
Pt Platinum	35,082	not tracked
S Sulfur	34,935	not tracked
Pb Lead	34,577	not tracked
U Uranium	34,500	not tracked
N Nitrogen	31,637	not tracked
Po Polonium	30,970	not tracked

The top 15. The Excel download has all 118.

See how students learn these

See if you can beat Cobalt in a game of Bond Forge, our take on dots and boxes with a chemistry learning twist. It's free to play with a starter set of elements, no account needed.

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