Spoilers for Celebrity Countdown - Tuesday 19th November 2019

[Johnny Canuck]

It's like they've mixed Countdown with the WWE.

[Ray Wilding]

Susie just flat out wrong on CHEERIOS. HELLO and and GOODBYE are nouns, CHEERIO is not.

[Fiona T]

A good game tonight - both contestants put in a good effort, and good to see Rufus successfully apply the maths trick.

[Tom S]

I thought Rufus played quite well regarding expected standards of his fellow celebs.

[Gavin Chipper]

Susie just flat out wrong on CHEERIOS. HELLO and and GOODBYE are nouns, CHEERIO is not.

Agreed.

[Callum Todd]

Susie just flat out wrong on CHEERIOS. HELLO and and GOODBYE are nouns, CHEERIO is not.

Why is this? I don't see why CHEERIO isn't/can't be a noun.

[Ray Wilding]

Susie just flat out wrong on CHEERIOS. HELLO and and GOODBYE are nouns, CHEERIO is not.

Why is this? I don't see why CHEERIO isn't/can't be a noun.

CHEERIO is only in as an exclamation https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/cheerio

[Gavin Chipper]

Susie just flat out wrong on CHEERIOS. HELLO and and GOODBYE are nouns, CHEERIO is not.

Why is this? I don't see why CHEERIO isn't/can't be a noun.

Who knows why the dictionary is the way it is, but it's not for Susie to make it up if it's not to anyone's liking.

[David Williams]

Does it say anywhere that you can't pluralise an exclamation? In fact it's being used as a count noun in the example sentence "A big cheerio to Bill, who's not been in the best of health of late." (Haven't watched the programme, so I don't know what was actually said.)

[Fiona T]

goodbye is listed as a synonym.

[Ray Wilding]

Does it say anywhere that you can't pluralise an exclamation? In fact it's being used as a count noun in the example sentence "A big cheerio to Bill, who's not been in the best of health of late." (Haven't watched the programme, so I don't know what was actually said.)

No, you cannot pluralise exclamations. If it isn't a noun, you can't pluralise it.

goodbye is listed as a synonym.

Word types aren't transitive, synonyms of words do not automatically share word types.
ARRIVEDERCI, CIAO, SAYONARA, TOODLES, none of these are in as nouns.
ADIEU is in as a noun, so its plurals are fine.

My point is that the word NOUN is nowhere to be seen in the entry for CHEERIO.

[David Williams]

It may be your (and my) opinion that you can't pluralise an exclamation, but the point at issue is where this is laid down. And the usage in the example sentence could be pluralised. On balance I agree with you, but I'm not seeing quite enough to overrule the onfield decision.

[Gavin Chipper]

It may be your (and my) opinion that you can't pluralise an exclamation, but the point at issue is where this is laid down. And the usage in the example sentence could be pluralised. On balance I agree with you, but I'm not seeing quite enough to overrule the onfield decision.

If you could pluralise it, it would be a noun. That's true basically by definition. Not a noun = no plural. Sure, something can be an exclamation and a noun, but it should be listed as such.

The example sentence does suggest that it can be used as a noun, but then it's about which takes precedence - the definition or the example sentences.

[Stewart Gordon]

It may be your (and my) opinion that you can't pluralise an exclamation, but the point at issue is where this is laid down.

It doesn't need to be. There would need to be a rule somewhere to say that you can pluralise exclamations. Why would all the (part of speech, inflection) combinations that aren't allowed be listed explicitly, when it would be much simpler to list the ones that are allowed?

And the usage in the example sentence could be pluralised. On balance I agree with you, but I'm not seeing quite enough to overrule the onfield decision.

Which example sentence?