Oxford Dictionary of English

The Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd Edition revised), one of the show's former dictionaries, added only a few new words to its predecessor.

The Oxford Dictionary of English was the programme's source dictionary used to judge words from Series 43 to Series 70. Each updated edition typically added a number of new words, removes a few and clarifies the validity of some inflections (see Letters round rules). It was replaced by use of the Premium version of Oxford Dictionaries Online (ODO) on a laptop in Series 71, which also removed the pencam. The last edition, the 3rd, remains part of the Countdown goody bag to this day.

Countdown has always favoured shorter editions over the various comprehensive tomes issued by Oxford, both for reasons of television convenience and in an attempt to reward anagramming skills rather than knowledge of rare or obsolete words. Nevertheless even the concise dictionary includes a huge number of words which are likely to be unfamiliar to any one person, and some of these have become popular favourites on the show, such as TANGELO, LEOTARD and FANTOD. In the 2000's, some of the most successful players of this era, such as Conor Travers and Craig Beevers, have taken knowledge of the high-probability obscurities to new heights. Stewart Holden admits that his Grand Final win over Steve Graston hinged on his spotting the word WALDOES, which he had learnt only for its probability.

Susie Dent, the programme's longest-serving lexicographer, has frequently suggested that the words seen on Countdown contribute to decisions made about what to include in future editions. For example, after many years of being disallowed, RESOLE was finally introduced with the ODE 2nd Edition. Popular requests included MOANIEST and clouter x (although these have the anagrams AMNIOTES and COULTER respectively).

Originally, the show began with the Concise Oxford Dictionary and continued to use updated editions of it until the disaster of the 10th Edition, in which many compound words were removed if their meanings were considered from their constituents. After a contestant lost a game after having ROADSIDE disallowed, it was realised that this sort of dictionary was not suitable for the letters rounds. The next series switched to the New Oxford Dictionary of English, and its updated editions were used until the end of Series 70.

From the beginning of Series 71, the validity of words is now determined using the Premium version of Oxford Dictionaries Online (ODO). The paper dictionaries in Dictionary Corner have been replaced with a laptop. A free version of ODO (now called Lexico) is used by the show's director, who can overrule a valid word which otherwise does not appear in premium, as a back-up source. The overruling is cut from final broadcast.

Only the British English section of ODO Premium and the UK Dictionary section of Lexico are used for adjudication. The UK Dictionary and US Dictionary sections were previously not separate in Lexico, but as of 2020 this is no longer the case. This means one-word entries in US English and US Dictionary which are otherwise specified as two separate words in UK English (e.g. outearn x) are no longer allowed. [1]

Editions

• Concise Oxford Dictionary
  • 7th Edition - Series 1 to 20 (Episode 1015)
  • 8th Edition - Series 20 (Episode 1016) to 30
  • 9th Edition - Series 31 to Championship of Champions X, and most of Series 42 (see above)
  • 10th Edition - Series 42 (first six games only)
• Oxford Dictionary of English
  • New Oxford Dictionary of English - Series 43 to 50
  • 2nd Edition - Series 51 to 54
  • 2nd Edition revised - Championship of Champions XII to Series 63
  • 3rd Edition - Series 64 to 70
• Oxford Dictionaries Online
  • Premium Version in Dictionary Corner, Lexico as back-up source - Series 71

See also

• Oxford Dictionary of English on Wikipedia.