Oxford Dictionaries Premium

Oxford Dictionaries Online (ODO) is separate to Oxford Dictionary of English (ODE) and Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

Oxford Dictionaries Online (ODO) are the source website dictionaries currently used for adjudication of words offered by the contestants in the letters games on Countdown. Supplied by the Oxford University Press, it comes in two versions: the 'Premium' version, Oxford Dictionaries Premium; and its 'free' version, branded as Lexico since June 2019. The Premium version can only be accessed via an annual subscription fee or a library card. The websites are used on a laptop in Dictionary Corner, which replaced the use of a print dictionary and pencam at the beginning of Series 70 in June 2014. The 3rd and last edition of the print dictionary, Oxford Dictionary of English (ODE), is still part of the goody bag.

The lexicographer searches each contestant's word under the 'British English' section of Premium first. If their word is invalid, it is then searched under the 'UK Dictionary' section of the Lexico website; if it can be found in Lexico, then the word is accepted. Both websites operate a slightly different search logarithm.

The US English and US Dictionary sections are not used for adjudication. The UK Dictionary and US Dictionary sections were originally not separate in Lexico, but as of January 2020 this is no longer the case. As a result, one-word entries under the US sections which are otherwise specified as two separate words in UK sections (e.g. outearn ☓) are no longer allowed.

The British English section contains some entries from the US English dictionary in Premium, which are indicated by "Entry from US English Dictionary" underneath the phonetic spelling; an example of this is COQUI. These cannot be found under UK Dictionary in Lexico, but will still be allowed on Countdown. Premium is therefore more voluminous than Lexico.

Premium is also more accurate than Lexico, as it explicitly labels some mass nouns as a count noun (e.g. LOTION gives a [COUNT NOUN] sense in Premium and not in Lexico) and some verbs ending with -ING "as noun".

Unspecified redirections from searching words that link to other entries in the dictionary are also not used for adjudication; when searches do redirect, only words specified on the page (and any sensible plurals and inflections) will be accepted (e.g. gammier ☓ and raviolo ☓ are invalid despite redirecting to GAMMY and RAVIOLI respectively).

ODO is an ever-expanding source which includes thousands of loanwords words and variants spellings from international English, including regions of the UK as well as the US, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand and other countries.

Premium and Lexico are updated with thousands of new words each year (sometimes simultaneously). In order to keep in sync with both websites and Countdown rules, the Apterous website's facsimile of the dictionary is updated quarterly by including and excluding words which would or would not be considered allowable on Countdown.

Dan McColm, the first series champion to be crowned in the ODO era, came up with very modern words included in the dictionary such as WHATEV, and in his last game of his octochamp run spotted that the conundrum BOBHOPTOM became PHOTOBOMB, a word that trended highly in 2014. Elliott Mellor, Luke Johnson-Davies and Sam Cappleman-Lynes have also been noted for finding obscure ODO words that could otherwise not be found in ODE nor in other dictionaries (both print and online).

How words are allowed

Any word declared by a contestant which has its own uncapitalised entry in bold in ODO, including subentries, are accepted. The declared word must not be an abbreviation nor a proper noun.

Italicised words in the dictionary are not allowed, nor are the following entries:

• hyphenated words (e.g. blue-wing ☓)
• words containing an apostrophe (e.g. can't ☓)
• any word that exists only with an initial capital letter (e.g. Kevlar ☓)
• any word that appears only in combination (e.g. swatter ☓ is invalid as it only appears in 'fly swatter')
• American spellings that are not standard in British English (e.g. color ☓)

Loanwords in English which have their entry in ODO, including those from North America (e.g. FAUCET), are allowed.

American spellings labelled 'US' in the dictionary are not allowed (e.g. color ☓). However, entries labelled 'mainly US' – as opposed to just 'US' – are allowed, as 'mainly US' implies the spelling has usage in the UK (e.g. DONUT).

Accented words are allowed (e.g. BRULEE, written as 'brûlée' in the dictionary).

Singular forms of plural nouns are invalid (e.g. CRUDITES but no crudite ☓), and inflected forms of plurals that are the same as the singular are also invalid (e.g. SALMON but no salmons ☓).

Words capitalised in Premium that are erroneously uncapitalised in Lexico are omitted (e.g. Mohawk ☓ uses an initial lower-case m in Lexico, but a capital M in Premium). Abbreviations erroneously defined as "nouns" are also omitted (e.g. psia ☓ is given as a noun, but is defined as 'Pounds per square inch absolute').

Missing subentries

Not all headwords in ODO specify subentries. Any sensible and correctly-spelled inflections of headwords, including plurals and inflected verb forms in English usage (see letters round rules) would be accepted.

Unspecified subentries include:

• plurals of nouns (including loanwords in English that are borrowed from foreign languages)
• comparatives and superlatives of adjectives
• participles of verbs (including past and present tenses)
• unspecified -ISE/-IZE spellings and inflections (as well as -ISATION/-IZATION)

Nouns

For -MAN words specifically: the accepted plural of any gender-related noun ending in suffixes -MAN and -WOMAN would be -MEN and -WOMEN respectively (e.g. ORRAMAN has no specified plurals but ORRAMEN is assumed over orramans ☓); if it is not gender-related according to the definition, it would be -MANS (e.g. CAYMANS is assumed over caymen ☓).

NOTE: SANDMAN has no plural, because it's the sandman, so sandmans ☓ and sandmen ☓ are invalid.

For loanwords in English which are borrowed from a foreign language, Countdown (and Apterous) tries its best to accept any correct plurals where possible (there may be more than one plural). Hence, e.g., GENESES is assumed the plural of GENESIS, rather than genesises ☓, and HEDERS and HEDARIM are assumed the plurals of HEDER (a variant of CHEDER).

For mass nouns: many of these may not take a plural (e.g. sedations ☓). If a word labelled as a [MASS NOUN] also has a [COUNT NOUN] label, which implies the noun has a countable sense, the plural would be accepted (e.g. EXERTIONS is valid as the singular has a count noun sense in Premium, albeit not in Lexico).

Not all mass nouns have a specified count noun sense, but leeway may be given to accept plurals, based on the definitions on the page. Since 2019, the following plurals have been accepted:

• TIRAMISUS (a portion of tiramisu)
• DRAINAGES (a system of drains)
• TOWAGES (a charge for towing a boat)

Nounal entries in ODO that are defined by synonyms of uncountable mass nouns are also assumed not to take a plural (e.g. MYOPY is a rare term for MYOPIA, which is a mass noun, so myopies ☓ is invalid).

Adjectives

In an adjective has two syllables or more, the inflected comparative and superlative forms must be specified to be allowed (e.g. the existence of SHOUTY, which has two syllables, does not mean shoutier ☓ nor shoutiest ☓ are valid).

If an adjective has one syllable, inflected comparatives and superlatives need not be specified to be allowed (e.g. LOUCHE has no subentries, but one can be the LOUCHER than the next person, or the LOUCHEST person).

Verbs

If a verb does not specify inflections, any sensible and correctly-spelled inflections would be accepted (e.g. EVADE has no subentries but EVADED and EVADING are valid, whereas evadeing ☓ is not).

For verbs with a prefix in front (including OUT-, RE- etc.): if inflections are not specified, then it would be assumed to take the same specified inflections as the corresponding root verb (e.g. OUTLIE has no specified participles but, since the specified inflections of LIE are LIES, LYING, LAY and LAIN, OUTLIES, OUTLYING, OUTLAY and OUTLAIN are valid); if inflections are specified, only those will be ruled valid (e.g. the existence of SHINED does not mean outshined ☓ is valid, because OUTSHONE is the specified past and past participle).

Oxford spellings

A verb ending in -ISE (including inflections) need not have its -IZE spelling specified to be allowed (and vice versa), as long as it complies with the Oxford spelling rule (e.g. MINORIZE is valid as an alternative spelling of MINORISE). Many -IZE spellings are used in British English as well as American English; the latter favours -IZE over -ISE.

Spellings where -ISE is considered standard in both British and American English would be assumed exempt this rule, and would therefore not have their -IZE spellings allowed – hence, e.g. advize ☓ is not valid, as ADVISE is the standard English spelling internationally; nor is surprize ☓, as its usage is considered too non-standard and archaic.

External Links

• Oxford Dictionaries website [1]
• Lexico Wikipedia page [2]