Spoilers for Wednesday 3rd September - Series 92, Heat 48

[Philip Wilson]

Unlevel (x) is the most ridiculously disallowed word since Minuters (x)!

[Philip A]

The trouble is some words are simply too old, which is why they’re not in their dictionary. I think we usually describe a surface or competition as uneven or unequal rather than ‘unlevel’. I remember inventing ‘un-sad’ when I was asked to recall synonyms of ‘happy’ in a primary school lesson.

Also I think ‘minuter’ not being in the dictionary is worse than ‘minuters’ considering ‘minutest’ is in.

[Philip Wilson]

Googling 'is it an unlevel playing field or an uneven playing field?' leads to an interesting description. Maybe uneven is more accurate to describe an unfair situation, whereas unlevel is more literal to an actual unlevel field. To my mind uneven means bumpy, unlevel implies not flat but sloping in one direction only. Either way it makes no reference to one not being a word in everyday use.

I totally agree about minuter and minutest in the size meaning. How can one be in and not the other?! However both do sound a bit awkward and can see why perhaps neither should be valid. I only put the s on to make it clear I was referring to people who take minutes at meetings though. These people exist!

[Gavin Chipper]

The trouble is some words are simply too old, which is why they’re not in their dictionary. I think we usually describe a surface or competition as uneven or unequal rather than ‘unlevel’. I remember inventing ‘un-sad’ when I was asked to recall synonyms of ‘happy’ in a primary school lesson.

Also I think ‘minuter’ not being in the dictionary is worse than ‘minuters’ considering ‘minutest’ is in.

The "minuter" "minutest" thing exists because "minutest" is essentially in as a joke word rather than a proper superlative. See this post:

There's an explanation in Collins.

Minute does not have a comparative form. The superlative form minutest is used to emphasize how small something is, rather than in comparisons.