The aim of the study is to build a database of paremiological units for a neurocognitive test to assess the state of cognitive functions in patients with diabetes mellitus. To identify the most relevant and frequent paremiological units, we conducted a survey among native speakers of the Russian language. The paper describes an experiment conducted on the Yandex.Toloka site. As a result, we received 36900 descriptions of the figurative meanings of proverbs and sayings. The respondents properly interpreted 86 units of G. L. Permyakov’s paremiological minimum (from 85 % to 100% of correct interpretations), 11 units caused significant difficulties (from 35 % to 65 % of correct interpretations). Particular attention was paid to the analysis of the most characteristic cases connected with incorrect explaining of the figurative meanings of some units. In general, the base being created includes 56 proverbs and sayings interpreted correctly by the largest number of the informants (95 % or more). The scientific novelty of the study is its large-scale survey, conducted with the help of modern technologies, identifying the paremiological units mostly spread among native speakers of the Russian language. We selected linguistically validated material, which made it possible to create the basis of a new tool for assessing the state of cognitive functions in patients with diabetes mellitus.