Disputed words

Several of Countdown's rules regarding which Oxford Dictionaries Premium words are permitted and which are not are applied inconsistently. This page lists words which should be "approached with caution".

For an overview of how words are adjudicated, see the Contestant Guidelines.

Mass noun plurals

Some of these have been allowed and disallowed at different times, e.g.

• LOGICS
• OPALINES
• PLUMAGES
• SEDATIONS
• STOWAGES (now has a [COUNT NOUN] sense)
• TOWAGES
• TRUANCIES
• UPTAKES

Some words have no obvious basis for pluralisation but have been allowed (implicitly or explicitly) at various points, e.g. PELAGES.

Adjective inflections

The following words are allowed on Apterous, but may not be allowed on Countdown:

• BRUTER, BRUTEST (assumed inflections of BRUT).
• CHIEFER, CHIEFEST
• DUSKER, DUSKEST
• FARSER, FARSEST (see hard-to-find words)
• FEINTER, FEINTEST
• JOINTEST
• MAINER, MAINEST

Another issue is adjectives labelled "[in combination]". It is generally assumed that these are not allowed.

Passive verbs

Some verbs appear as headwords but with only the passive form specified, such as LENITE "(be lenited)". It is not clear whether the other inflections are to be allowed, and in practice rulings have been inconsistent (e.g. REPUTING in episodes 3938 and 5146). These are presently allowed on Apterous.

• ENAMOUR
• LENITE
• NEAP
• REPUTE

American spellings

Countdown rules state that American words are permitted, while American spellings are not. This occasionally causes issues because the ODP itself makes no such distinction, simply marking words as "US" in either case. Generally the distinction is obvious but sometimes it's debatable.

A particularly perplexing example is SULFUR – there is no such label, implying that SULFUR is valid, and a usage note specifies that "the -f- spelling is now the standard form in all related words in the field in both British and US contexts". Other such -f- spellings, including SULFITE and SULFIDE, are also allowed.

Entries spelled -IZE or -IZER and inflections are also allowed, as this is actually an Oxford spelling rather than a US spelling.

MODIST has been both allowed and disallowed over the years. It was disallowed in 2003, disallowed in 2018, but allowed in 2021. It is labelled as the "US equivalent" of MODISTE.

Capitalised words with lower-case usages

Any words and inflections in ODP which contain a capital letter are not allowed (e.g. Kevlar ☓, eBay ☓).

However, some words do have instances in which a lower-case capital letter is used (e.g. the verbs 'to GOOGLE' and 'to HOOVER' are spelled with a lower-case g and h respectively, and therefore allowed).

"In singular" words

Plurals of nouns marked [IN SINGULAR] have been disallowed during the paper dictionary era (e.g. OUTSETS). As of the ODP era, this rule has since been relaxed, so all [IN SINGULAR] words are allowed the plural.

Plural of words only preceded by "the"

These words might or might not be interpreted as mass nouns:

• BEYOND
• ESCHATON
• INTERNET
• SANDMAN
• SERENE
• YONDER