Why a true answer can still miss
Not accepted means the string you sent is not on the DleBox list for that prompt. It does not mean the thing is fictional. Deserts, instruments, and Hall of Famers are samples. A real member can be absent. Planets, primes under 50, current NBA teams, and the euro-area countries we listed are filled out. If a member of those sets fails, the usual cause is spelling or an alias we did not store.
The matcher lowercases, strips accents, turns an ampersand into and, and drops a leading the, a, or an. Plus and hash stay, because C++ is not C. Extra spaces collapse. Brasil is stored as an alias of Brazil. A clever abbreviation is not implied. USA counts on the World Cup prompts because those rows include it. It does not count on a prompt that never listed the alias.
While the clock is running, send another name. The rejection does not lock the prompt. When the clock hits zero, the prompt is over and the score for it is zero. Practice gives you another shared seven if you want more tries without touching the daily. A private rematch from Play another round is a third set, and its misses are still list misses.
The answer table is the way to see the names that would have scored. Opening it mid-round is a choice. The hint page gives you less: a category, a first letter, then one featured name. Neither page adds the desert we forgot. Updating a sample means editing the list, not arguing with the box.
Theme packs follow the same rule, and each pack says which of its prompts are samples. The geography note is the short version: oceans and euro-area countries are filled out, parks and deserts are not. The NBA note says all thirty current teams are present. If a team fails, check the nickname. Hornets and Charlotte Hornets both have to be on the row, and the nickname is stored where we listed it.
From here you can read why an answer is rejected. The Krillion directory page is the longer guide to the original game and to ours.
The longer explanation, with the same facts next to the play links, is the answer-not-accepted page. Use it when the one-line error is not enough. Then go back to a round if you still have a name to try.
Do not treat a rejection as a correction of the world. A river, a desert, or a defender we left off the sample is still real. The honest fix is to add the name to the list in a later edit, not to pretend the box fact-checked you. Until that edit, type a name you have seen on the table, or move to the next prompt when the clock is gone.
The planet prompt is a closed set, and Pluto is not in it. Earth is accepted. Terra is stored as an alias of Earth, so that spelling scores the same common 10. A prime under 50 is also closed: 47 is on the list, and a word such as four is not. The five oceans and the euro-area countries we listed are filled out. Rivers, deserts, parks, ranges, and Hall of Famers are samples. A real member of a sample can miss.
A rejection clears the box and leaves the clock running. It does not lock the prompt. The next name can still score, including a rarer one, until something is accepted or the seconds hit zero. An empty send is different: it asks you to type one name and does not start the clock. The panel is a list check. It is not a ruling on whether the thing exists.