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: 10,986 answers — 10,731 from gameplay, 255 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	116	78	38	33%	palladium
2	Praseodymium	59	127	88	39	31%	protactinium
3	Moscovium	115	89	66	23	26%
4	Darmstadtium	110	84	66	18	21%	dysprosium
5	Flerovium	114	78	62	16	21%
6	Phosphorus	15	117	94	23	20%
7	Ruthenium	44	89	72	17	19%
8	Thulium	69	95	77	18	19%
9	Rhenium	75	90	73	17	19%
10	Tin	50	106	87	19	18%
11	Sodium	11	293	245	48	16%
12	Mendelevium	101	73	63	10	14%	molybdenum
13	Rubidium	37	83	72	11	13%
14	Thallium	81	79	69	10	13%
15	Arsenic	33	71	63	8	11%
16	Nihonium	113	71	63	8	11%
17	Nitrogen	7	271	241	30	11%	nickel
18	Potassium	19	89	80	9	10%
19	Fluorine	9	277	249	28	10%
20	Neodymium	60	70	63	7	10%
21	Carbon	6	291	262	29	10%
22	Lawrencium	103	73	66	7	10%
23	Manganese	25	75	68	7	9%
24	Boron	5	266	242	24	9%
25	Calcium	20	100	91	9	9%
26	Gadolinium	64	68	62	6	9%
27	Beryllium	4	269	246	23	9%
28	Antimony	51	82	75	7	9%
29	Tellurium	52	62	57	5	8%
30	Copernicium	112	62	57	5	8%
31	Gallium	31	78	72	6	8%
32	Rhodium	45	65	60	5	8%
33	Hydrogen	1	293	271	22	8%
34	Neon	10	266	247	19	7%
35	Silver	47	84	78	6	7%	argon
36	Mercury	80	72	67	5	7%
37	Astatine	85	74	69	5	7%
38	Bohrium	107	60	56	4	7%
39	Fermium	100	62	58	4	6%
40	Iron	26	82	77	5	6%
41	Samarium	62	72	68	4	6%	tin
42	Promethium	61	56	53	3	5%
43	Chlorine	17	95	90	5	5%
44	Niobium	41	76	72	4	5%
45	Curium	96	58	55	3	5%
46	Francium	87	78	74	4	5%
47	Dubnium	105	61	58	3	5%
48	Magnesium	12	285	271	14	5%	manganese
49	Terbium	65	63	60	3	5%
50	Thorium	90	63	60	3	5%
51	Ytterbium	70	67	64	3	4%
52	Helium	2	255	244	11	4%
53	Palladium	46	70	67	3	4%	lead
54	Silicon	14	95	91	4	4%
55	Yttrium	39	72	69	3	4%
56	Radon	86	73	70	3	4%
57	Strontium	38	75	72	3	4%
58	Zinc	30	76	73	3	4%
59	Rutherfordium	104	54	52	2	4%
60	Californium	98	57	55	2	4%
61	Seaborgium	106	57	55	2	4%
62	Technetium	43	60	58	2	3%
63	Sulfur	16	94	91	3	3%
64	Cadmium	48	66	64	2	3%
65	Roentgenium	111	66	64	2	3%
66	Titanium	22	69	67	2	3%
67	Zirconium	40	75	73	2	3%
68	Bismuth	83	76	74	2	3%
69	Platinum	78	78	76	2	3%
70	Nickel	28	92	90	2	2%
71	Lutetium	71	53	52	1	2%
72	Lithium	3	277	272	5	2%
73	Osmium	76	56	55	1	2%
74	Actinium	89	57	56	1	2%
75	Neptunium	93	57	56	1	2%
76	Cerium	58	58	57	1	2%
77	Dysprosium	66	58	57	1	2%
78	Tantalum	73	58	57	1	2%
79	Nobelium	102	58	57	1	2%
80	Scandium	21	59	58	1	2%
81	Polonium	84	59	58	1	2%
82	Europium	63	61	60	1	2%
83	Erbium	68	61	60	1	2%	europium
84	Indium	49	62	61	1	2%
85	Lanthanum	57	63	62	1	2%
86	Uranium	92	64	63	1	2%
87	Berkelium	97	64	63	1	2%
88	Cobalt	27	68	67	1	1%
89	Krypton	36	68	67	1	1%
90	Molybdenum	42	68	67	1	1%
91	Barium	56	68	67	1	1%
92	Radium	88	68	67	1	1%
93	Germanium	32	69	68	1	1%
94	Oxygen	8	291	287	4	1%
95	Iodine	53	78	77	1	1%
96	Bromine	35	92	91	1	1%
97	Gold	79	107	107	0	0%
98	Copper	29	96	96	0	0%
99	Aluminum	13	90	90	0	0%
100	Argon	18	89	89	0	0%
101	Chromium	24	81	81	0	0%
102	Tungsten	74	75	75	0	0%
103	Lead	82	74	74	0	0%
104	Vanadium	23	72	72	0	0%
105	Selenium	34	67	67	0	0%
106	Hassium	108	62	62	0	0%
107	Xenon	54	61	61	0	0%
108	Holmium	67	60	60	0	0%
109	Iridium	77	60	60	0	0%
110	Americium	95	59	59	0	0%
111	Tennessine	117	59	59	0	0%
112	Cesium	55	58	58	0	0%
113	Hafnium	72	58	58	0	0%
114	Einsteinium	99	58	58	0	0%
115	Livermorium	116	57	57	0	0%
116	Oganesson	118	57	57	0	0%
117	Meitnerium	109	55	55	0	0%
118	Plutonium	94	50	50	0	0%

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.

Play Bond Forge free