Contestant Guidelines

These guidelines are the notes published by the Countdown producers. The first notes outline the general rules that Dictionary Corner use when deciding whether a noun can have a plural.

General noun rules

Nouns in Oxford Dictionaries Premium may be labelled as [MASS NOUN]; in some entries, a countable noun instance may be given, accompanied by a [COUNT NOUN] label followed by an example sentence.

If an entry for a noun has no label, it indicates that the noun is an ordinarily countable noun and so a plural is allowed: for example TABLE - TABLES, BOY - BOYS, LASS - LASSES etc. Plurals of nouns labelled [IN SINGULAR] are also allowed: for example NADIR – NADIRS.

If an entry for a noun has the label [MASS NOUN], it means that the word is not normally or typically used in the plural: for example VIOLENCE or MOHAIR. In these cases, the plurals violences ☓ or mohairs ☓ are not allowed.

However, some entries with the [MASS NOUN] label do also give a [COUNT NOUN] sense, which provides a use of which the plural can be used under a specific context: for example GENOCIDE can be a mass noun or a count noun (‘news of genocides went unreported’), so GENOCIDES is valid.

There are particular types of mass nouns that can take a plural under plausible circumstances, even when a count noun sense isn't explicitly given: for instance, when referring to different types of something such as food. The noun WHEAT, for example, is normally uncountable, but it is possible to talk about a wide selection of WHEATS. Because these types of nouns follow regular rules for forming plurals in particular contexts, the dictionary does not generally indicate that a plural may be allowed. The main types are listed below. Where a noun falls into one of these categories, it means that a plural is usually allowed, though each individual case will be judged on its merits.

Pluralisable mass noun categories

Types or varieties

• Food e.g. YOGHURT - YOGHURTS, PASTA - PASTAS
• Drink e.g. RUM - RUMS, LAGER - LAGERS
• Plants e.g. CLOVER - CLOVERS, BARLEY - BARLEYS
• Certain languages or subjects e.g. SCIENCE - SCIENCES
• Metals and alloys e.g. STEEL - STEELS, SOLDER - SOLDERS
• Rocks e.g. GRANITE - LAVA - LAVAS, CLAY - CLAYS
• Chemical compounds e.g. FLUORIDE - FLUORIDES, HYDRIDE - HYDRIDES
• Some substances or materials e.g. RIND - RINDS, SOIL - SOILS, SEALSKIN - SEALSKINS, SUNCREAM - SUNCREAMS
• An area of land of a specified type e.g. TERRAIN - TERRAINS

Portions or units of something

• Food e.g. PAELLA (dishes of paella = PAELLAS), VINDALOO (dishes of vindaloo = VINDALOOS)
• Drink e.g. LAGER (glasses/bottles of lager = LAGERS)

Special instances

• An action or process e.g. GENOCIDE (act of genocide = GENOCIDES)
• A surgical operation e.g. ABLATION - ABLATIONS
• An emotion, pain or feeling e.g. BACKACHE - BACKACHES, GRIEF (an instance or cause of grief = GRIEFS)

Other areas of adjudication

These notes outline other rules to do with the adjudication of words.

Allowed

Logical inflections e.g. KNIGHTED, SCALDED are fine.

• –AGE

Words in this category denoting an action (BREAKAGE), the product of an action (DOSAGE) or a place of abode (ORPHANAGE) may be pluralized. Many others do not have a logical plural sense (PARENTAGE).

• –ING

The plural of a word ending in –ING will not be allowed unless it is entered in ODO in pluralized form or as a count noun, e.g. ENDINGS is fine but BAKINGS would be disallowed.

• Accented words are allowed, e.g. FIANCÉ.

Disallowed

• –ER agent nouns not in ODE3, e.g. CURER is fine but GUESTER is not.
• –ILY words not in ODE3, e.g. STUBBILY is fine but MANKILY is not.
• –LESS and –NESS words not in ODE3, e.g. EARLESS is fine but BOATLESS is not; REDNESS is fine but BEIGENESS is not.
• UN- and RE- words not in ODE, e.g. UNSAY is fine but UNSCRAPE is not, REWORD is fine but REWATCH is not.
• BE- words not in ODE, e.g. BESTREW is fine but BESCATTER is not.

Conundrums

The conundrum will not end in S to make a plural of a singular word in regular Countdown (though it can do in 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown). Whatever the scramble is, it will never be the answer (so if the conundrum spells out a word when it is first revealed, for example on 8 January 1993, this won’t be the actual answer!)