Your best apterous word to date?

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Matthew Green
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Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Matthew Green »

I got OILFIELDS last week in a 10-sec game which I was rather impressed with. I also got GADABOUTS but only after I saw Paul Howe get it in the singular.
If I suddenly have a squirming baby on my lap it probably means that I should start paying it some attention and stop wasting my time messing around on a Countdown forum
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Ian Dent
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Ian Dent »

Classier.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Michael Wallace »

I think my best spot to date was RHEOSTATS, having not had cause to think about the word since doing A level physics.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Paul Howe »

EUKARYOTE, or picking the final U for DEUTERIUM.

I quite like the words that come up as the best picks in goatdown sometimes, e.g. COWABUNGA, JUNKYARD, LIFEBUOY, SYSADMIN, BACCARAT, TRITHEISM and so on.
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Innis Carson
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Innis Carson »

BARGEPOLE, definitely.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Jimmy Gough »

Innis Carson wrote:BARGEPOLE, definitely.
Ha, I remember that. Mine's probably PARTRIDGE, RHATANIES or COMELIEST.
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Kirk Bevins
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Kirk Bevins »

Mine has to be AEPYORNIS.
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Jon Corby
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Jon Corby »

Probably PSORIASIS in a regular letters round.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Simon Myers »

In any game, QUANTISER in goatdown probably. I chose the S (was going for URINATES till I remembered that it took a Q, otherwise I'd of course gone Z).

In a 15 rounder, SCIAENID.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Jimmy Gough »

I'd say DIDJERIDU would be the greatest spot ever.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Gavin Chipper »

I always like it when I "beat the dictionary" which is to say I get a word which clearly should be in there but isn't, but is longer than anything allowable. Once I got FANBASE (of course it's a word) but then there's the nine-letter DUMBARSES which is surely worthy of a medal.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Charlie Reams »

ANHEDONIA (although it was Goatdown.)
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by David O'Donnell »

KEIRETSU, REQUINTOS, BINDAAS and AVIRULENT (but only because this last one was against Corby and he had VIRULENT mu ha ha)
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Jon Corby »

David O'Donnell wrote:KEIRETSU, REQUINTOS, BINDAAS and AVIRULENT (but only because this last one was against Corby and he had VIRULENT mu ha ha)
My "A" key doesn't work though.

(I cut and pasted that A from elsewhere. And these ones.)
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Eoin Monaghan »

proud of myself when i got MISSHAPED against David O'Donnell although i did get beat
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Clare Sudbery »

I had NERDIEST today, made me happy. Actually i think i've had it before, tis quite a common letters combination? or would be on scrabble... nobody ever did answer my qu about countdown letter frequencies...
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by David O'Donnell »

Eoin.V.Monaghan wrote:proud of myself when i got MISSHAPED against David O'Donnell although i did get beat
Yeah, well done. My niner radar is a bit awful sometimes but luckily it's never gonna cost me.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Junaid Mubeen »

Just got EUTHERIAN against Dinos. Been wanting to get it ever since I learnt it. Incidentally, it stems from HERNIA as such: HERNIA-HAIRNET-HAURIENT-EUTHERIAN.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Jimmy Gough »

Clare Sudbery wrote:I had NERDIEST today, made me happy. Actually i think i've had it before, tis quite a common letters combination? or would be on scrabble... nobody ever did answer my qu about countdown letter frequencies...
There's a topic on it somewhere, but I can't be bothered to try and find it :)
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Clare Sudbery »

maybe you can just tell me if they have equal nums of all letters on countdown, yay or nay?
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Kirk Bevins »

Clare Sudbery wrote:maybe you can just tell me if they have equal nums of all letters on countdown, yay or nay?
Take a guess.
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Phil Reynolds
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Phil Reynolds »

Clare Sudbery wrote:maybe you can just tell me if they have equal nums of all letters on countdown, yay or nay?
Clearly not, otherwise you might expect on occasion to see Z, X, Q etc coming up more than once per game.
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Joseph Bolas
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Joseph Bolas »

Clare Sudbery wrote:maybe you can just tell me if they have equal nums of all letters on countdown, yay or nay?
There is a thread that Jim Bentley did, which mentioned the Letter Frequency for series 57.
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Phil Reynolds
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Phil Reynolds »

Has to be SPINNERET in round 1 of this game. I'd noted it, but wasn't convinced of the spelling, so I was going to declare SPINNER until Plum went first and declared a 9 so I decided I had to go for it. Turned out Plum's word wasn't in the selection so 18-0 to me. 8-)

I went to pieces towards the end of the game, but was pleased to get two 9s in the first 6 rounds.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Charlie Reams »

Phil Reynolds wrote:Has to be SPINNERET in round 1 of this game. I'd noted it, but wasn't convinced of the spelling, so I was going to declare SPINNER until Plum went first and declared a 9 so I decided I had to go for it. Turned out Plum's word wasn't in the selection so 18-0 to me. 8-)
Nice!
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Jimmy Gough »

PANACEAS.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Dinos Sfyris »

MIREPOIX
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Steven Briers
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Steven Briers »

HENDIADYS
Before you criticise someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticise them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.
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Kai Laddiman
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Kai Laddiman »

16/10/2007 - Episode 4460
Dinos Sfyris 76 - 78 Dorian Lidell
Proof that even idiots can get well and truly mainwheeled.
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Neil Zussman
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Neil Zussman »

Cornflake!
Except...
It's not a valid word :-(
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Jimmy Gough »

Neil Zussman wrote:Cornflake!
Except...
It's not a valid word :-(
Yeah, that was so unlucky. it's odd coz I was thinking yesterday about CONFLATES (as you do) and then started wondering whether you could have CORNFLAKE. It's one crazy, crazy world.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Oliver Garner »

Jimmy Gough wrote:I'd say DIDJERIDU would be the greatest spot ever.
I had that as a conundrum recently, saw it but typed the wrong first letter.

My best was INTERWOVE
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Innis Carson
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Innis Carson »

Got ARBORETUM a few days ago, not sure whether or not it takes the title though.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Gary Male »

Jimmy Gough wrote:
Neil Zussman wrote:Cornflake!
Except...
It's not a valid word :-(
Yeah, that was so unlucky. it's odd coz I was thinking yesterday about CONFLATES (as you do) and then started wondering whether you could have CORNFLAKE. It's one crazy, crazy world.
Interesting. Cornflake was valid in the series where COD9 was the dictionary of choice.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Kirk Bevins »

Gary Male wrote:
Interesting. Cornflake was valid in the series where COD9 was the dictionary of choice.
Yeah, stupid ODE2r only lists CORNFLAKES as a plural noun. So what is one of them called?
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Gary Male »

Kirk Bevins wrote:
Gary Male wrote:
Interesting. Cornflake was valid in the series where COD9 was the dictionary of choice.
Yeah, stupid ODE2r only lists CORNFLAKES as a plural noun. So what is one of them called?
Frank Cole?
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Ian Volante
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Ian Volante »

meles meles meles meles meles meles meles meles meles meles meles meles meles meles meles meles
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Martin Gardner
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Martin Gardner »

OSTRACIZE, with a Z.
If you cut a gandiseeg in half, do you get two gandiseegs or two halves of a gandiseeg?
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Michael Wallace
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Michael Wallace »

Martin Gardner wrote:OSTRACIZE, with a Z.
As opposed to OSTRACIZE without a Z?
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Charlie Reams
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Charlie Reams »

Update?
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Michael Wallace »

Charlie Reams wrote:Update?
That's rubbish - you suck.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Charlie Reams »

Michael Wallace wrote:
Charlie Reams wrote:Update?
That's rubbish - you suck.
UPDATING, on the other hand...
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Michael Wallace »

Charlie Reams wrote:
Michael Wallace wrote:
Charlie Reams wrote:Update?
That's rubbish - you suck.
UPDATING, on the other hand...
Hahaha you big gay.
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Kevin Davis
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Kevin Davis »

Still gotta be PAROCHIAL.
Oh, cackwires!
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Daniel O'Dowd
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Daniel O'Dowd »

Not being given free access to an easy archive of my own nines, I can't really tell you for sure, but HEINOUSLY ranks up there, as does MARTINET which secured a huge comeback.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Gavin Chipper »

I think I'm the only person to have spotted MELIORIST, although it has come up a few times.

Edit - Actually Andrew Hulme has too, but he hadn't last time I checked.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Adam Dexter »

Mine, I think, was STUCCO. Not that it's long, but more that it's quite obscure, and was a catalyst in my greatest ever comeback. Maybe a "generous type" could do a handy link to my game?
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Ben Wilson »

I like the whole 'nines this person got' feature, saves me from having to trawl through my archive to find this one. :) Non-goaty, it'd have to be this one or this one.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Stuart Arnot »

Adam Dexter wrote:Mine, I think, was STUCCO. Not that it's long, but more that it's quite obscure, and was a catalyst in my greatest ever comeback. Maybe a "generous type" could do a handy link to my game?
I'm not generous yet (although I should have paypal funds by the time of my 1000th game, so that's how I'll celebrate), but I am smart. ;)
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Phil Reynolds
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Phil Reynolds »

Can I ask nicely for people posting links to game records etc. on apterous to please use the www in front of the domain name (rather than just using apterous.org) as otherwise I have to scroll past adverts to get to the bit I'm supposed to be looking at.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Matthew Green »

Well given that this thread was my idea I think I should pick the winner:

Take a bow Mr Briers, HENDIADYS it is!
If I suddenly have a squirming baby on my lap it probably means that I should start paying it some attention and stop wasting my time messing around on a Countdown forum
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Matt Morrison »

Phil Reynolds wrote:Can I ask nicely for people posting links to game records etc. on apterous to please use the www in front of the domain name (rather than just using apterous.org) as otherwise I have to scroll past adverts to get to the bit I'm supposed to be looking at.
hmm... let Charlie know about this. The cookie for the website should now be shared across both 'domains', avec 'www.' and sans 'www.' - though maybe you have to specifically log in to both, I dunno?
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Ben Hunter
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Ben Hunter »

APERITIFS. Only person to get this in normal (except for Paul Howe in a duel). FLINTLOCK in the same game was pretty good but it was a conundrum guess.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Oliver Garner »

ENDOSPERM from some game I can't be bothered to find. Also, I think I am the only human user to find either DIGICAM or DIGICAMS.
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Neil Zussman
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Neil Zussman »

Mine is probably arboretum in this game. On my opponents pick in a speed game as well. Only Innis has spotted it before, and the great Bevins missed it here! (admittedly several months ago).
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Charlie Reams »

Neil Zussman wrote:Mine is probably arboretum in this game. On my opponents pick in a speed game as well. Only Innis has spotted it before, and the great Bevins missed it here! (admittedly several months ago).
I definitely got it against my mom once. Maybe that was before the games got logged or something. It is a good word though.
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Lee Simmonds
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Lee Simmonds »

PHENOMENA or SAMPHIRES I would say for me.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Stuart Arnot »

Usually, I panic if there's not an E in the selection, which is why I'm particularly pleased with UNITARILY and UNITARIST. Strangely, against the same player, and only a couple of days apart. :)
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Innis Carson »

Updating my entry to GUAIACOL.
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Re: Your best apterous word to date?

Post by Andrew Hulme »

GUAIACOL is ridiculous!

I would say for me SIXTEENMO
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