disallowed words

[Eoin Monaghan]

sometimes when playing apterous i type in a valid word and it doesn't count

e.g i typed in 'qindar' (currency of albania) and got no points

[Ben Wilson]

Please direct all wordlist-related enquiries to the wordlist-related enquiries department

[Charlie Reams]

QINDAR is not valid according to the Oxford Dictionary of English 2nd Edition Revised, which is the relevant authority.

[Dan Vanniasingham]

A quick look at your recent games shows that either:

1) The letters required for your word aren't present i.e. scurried (only one R)
2) You've got the word wrong i.e. rotaters (it's ROTATORS)
3) You've made it up i.e. tunings, waners, soapers...

Still, at least you can log-in and play these days

[Eoin Monaghan]

i thought it was a variation of qintar which is quite a popular countdown word

[Eoin Monaghan]

A quick look at your recent games shows that either:

1) The letters required for your word aren't present i.e. scurried (only one R)
2) You've got the word wrong i.e. rotaters (it's ROTATORS)
3) You've made it up i.e. tunings, waners, soapers...

Still, at least you can log-in and play these days

in relation to quote 1 i was playin goatdown so only had ten seconds
in relation to quote 2 i was guessing
in relation to quote 3 i was seeing if i could get lucky cause sometimes i play safe when i could risk valid words that are higher scoring value

[Eoin Monaghan]

A quick look at your recent games shows that either:



Still, at least you can log-in and play these days

i hope u werent bein sarcastic

[Charlie Reams]

in relation to quote 1 i was playin goatdown so only had ten seconds
in relation to quote 2 i was guessing
in relation to quote 3 i was seeing if i could get lucky cause sometimes i play safe when i could risk valid words that are higher scoring value

I don't think Dan was accusing you of anything. In fact I thought it was quite helpful of him to address so many examples. The moral is that you should be careful before claiming that the program is broken.

[Eoin Monaghan]

im not accusing dan- just backing myself up. also i dont think ive ever said the game was broken

[Dan Vanniasingham]

A quick look at your recent games shows that either:



Still, at least you can log-in and play these days

i hope u werent bein sarcastic

I hope I wasn't too.

[Charlie Reams]

also i dont think ive ever said the game was broken

So you thought that disallowing valid words was the correct behaviour?

[Eoin Monaghan]

no i think apterous is a fantastic website- i take my hat off to you charlie. I was just checking to see if words could be validated that i had disallowed. maybe i'm wrong -i don't know

[Jimmy Gough]

no i think apterous is a fantastic website- i take my hat off to you charlie. I was just checking to see if words could be validated that i had disallowed. maybe i'm wrong -i don't know

So basically you think he's a twat?

[Eoin Monaghan]

why would i think he's a twat? he's hardly a twat if he made the final of this years series-racking up some brilliant scores. i don't think i can say anything within this post that i haven't posted before on this topic

[Charlie Reams]

why would i think he's a twat? he's hardly a twat if he made the final of this years series-racking up some brilliant scores. i don't think i can say anything within this post that i haven't posted before on this topic

I think Jimmy is winding you up mate. I understood what you meant.

[Eoin Monaghan]

why would i think he's a twat? he's hardly a twat if he made the final of this years series-racking up some brilliant scores. i don't think i can say anything within this post that i haven't posted before on this topic

I think Jimmy is winding you up mate. I understood what you meant.

at least someone did

[Callum Laddiman]

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=32559 Round 2 of this. Surely stressiest is a valid word.

[Eoin Monaghan]

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=32559 Round 2 of this. Surely stressiest is a valid word.

surely not

[Phil Reynolds]

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=32559 Round 2 of this. Surely stressiest is a valid word.

Why "surely"? It might be a word if there was an adjective "stressy", which would then presumably have the comparative and superlative forms "stressier" and "stressiest". But there isn't. A situation is stressful, not stressy. (And hence potentially "more stressful" and "most stressful".)

[Matt Morrison]

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=32559 Round 2 of this. Surely stressiest is a valid word.

Why "surely"? It might be a word if there was an adjective "stressy", which would then presumably have the comparative and superlative forms "stressier" and "stressiest". But there isn't. A situation is stressful, not stressy. (And hence potentially "more stressful" and "most stressful".)

You are right of course Phil, but just for the info (guessing you don't use the word yourself) stressy isn't used as an adjective for a stressful situation, it is used to describe someone who gets stressed/moody a lot.

[Phil Reynolds]

stressy isn't used as an adjective for a stressful situation, it is used to describe someone who gets stressed/moody a lot.

Never heard it used in that way myself, but obviously people make up words all the time and use them in ways that suit them. The question is whether or not such neologisms have sufficient currency to be deemed worthy of inclusion in the dictionary, and (at least so far as "stressy" and the ODE are concerned) in this case the answer so far is evidently "no".

[Matt Morrison]

stressy isn't used as an adjective for a stressful situation, it is used to describe someone who gets stressed/moody a lot.

Never heard it used in that way myself, but obviously people make up words all the time and use them in ways that suit them. The question is whether or not such neologisms have sufficient currency to be deemed worthy of inclusion in the dictionary, and (at least so far as "stressy" and the ODE are concerned) in this case the answer so far is evidently "no".

Yup. I actually found out it wasn't in about a year ago watching Countdown, but I was very surprised at the time as I've known of people saying 'stressy' for 15-20 years. It's a classic school playground word, I'm remembering kids shouting "STRESSSSYYY!!" at each other whenever there's even the slightest hint of a bad mood.

[Lee Simmonds]

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=40118

I declared waldoes in this game and remember clearly Stewart Holden getting this in his series final. Would this be because a different dictionary was in use at the time?

[Kirk Bevins]

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=40118

I declared waldoes in this game and remember clearly Stewart Holden getting this in his series final. Would this be because a different dictionary was in use at the time?

Yes. It's WALDOS now.

[Ben Wilson]

http://www.apterous.org/viewgame.php?game=40118

I declared waldoes in this game and remember clearly Stewart Holden getting this in his series final. Would this be because a different dictionary was in use at the time?

ironically at the time it was valid in Countdown and not in Scrabble, whereas now it's the exact opposite.