One in a Million

[Derek Hazell]

You now have one million words to choose from every time you play a game of Countdown, as the Global Language Monitor crowned "Web 2.0" as the millionth word in the English language yesterday.

But the OED, the official guide for Countdown, are not quite so sure, as they say the term has been used since 1999.

Obviously you can only use the letters available to you when playing, and many of the words would be over 9 letters, but it still gives a hint to the amazing amount of vocabulary top-end players in both Countdown and Scrabble need to cram in.

If terms like "Web 2.0" are now being classed as words though, maybe we will eventually see a new round in Countdown which is comprised of both letters AND numbers!

[Kirk Bevins]

Obviously you can only use the letters available to you when playing, and many of the words would be over 9 letters, but it still gives a hint to the amazing amount of vocabulary top-end players in both Countdown and Scrabble need to cram in.

Surely there aren't this many in the ODE2r, the Countdown word source.

If terms like "Web 2.0" are now being classed as words though, maybe we will eventually see a new round in Countdown which is comprised of both letters AND numbers!

And decimal points?

[Peter Mabey]

Surely there aren't this many in the ODE2r, the Countdown word source.

... and how many are accepted by Lexplorer?

[Jon Corby]

Surely there aren't this many in the ODE2r, the Countdown word source.

... and how many are accepted by Lexplorer?

My own dictionary file (which is very similar to that used by Lexplorer) has a little over 82,000 words in.

[Charlie Reams]

My own dictionary file (which is very similar to that used by Lexplorer) has a little over 82,000 words in.

Lexplorer has 97199 words so something odd is going on here...

[Charlie Reams]

If terms like "Web 2.0" are now being classed as words though, maybe we will eventually see a new round in Countdown which is comprised of both letters AND numbers!

Prior art

[Jon Corby]

My own dictionary file (which is very similar to that used by Lexplorer) has a little over 82,000 words in.

Lexplorer has 97199 words so something odd is going on here...

Is that the extended dictionary for hyper etc though?

If not, I didn't put any of the one letter words in (except 'a') so there could well be a few thousand of them.

[Howard Somerset]

If not, I didn't put any of the one letter words in (except 'a') so there could well be a few thousand of them.

You've found a few thousand one-letter words! What alphabet are you using? Chinese?

[Charlie Reams]

My own dictionary file (which is very similar to that used by Lexplorer) has a little over 82,000 words in.

Lexplorer has 97199 words so something odd is going on here...

Is that the extended dictionary for hyper etc though?

If not, I didn't put any of the one letter words in (except 'a') so there could well be a few thousand of them.

Ah, that's it. 82178 of nine letters or fewer.

[Ben Wilson]

And CSW, the so-called 'ridiculously expansive Scrabble word list', only has around 270 000.

Though to be pedantic isn't 'Web 2.0' more of a 'term' than a 'word'?

[Dinos Sfyris]

If not, I didn't put any of the one letter words in (except 'a') so there could well be a few thousand of them.

You've found a few thousand one-letter words! What alphabet are you using? Chinese?

Haven't you seen the new Apterous DC guest?

[Derek Hazell]

And CSW, the so-called 'ridiculously expansive Scrabble word list', only has around 270 000.

Though to be pedantic isn't 'Web 2.0' more of a 'term' than a 'word'?

I would have thought so, yes Ben. But the term was classed as a word when it was christened the "millionth word". That is why I made the comment about a words AND numbers round, and then Charlie showed me a similar thing which had been done in Scrabble.

[Derek Hazell]

I have found out that Susie was on Newsnight on Tuesday - before the word was announced - talking about the various contenders for the millionth word title*. The eventual winner "web 2.0" was not mentioned, but noob was; and as it can also be spelt n00b it is also another contender for our new words AND numbers round.

* You can still see her on iPlayer if you hurry

[Derek Hazell]

Susie also mentioned the millionth word debate on Countdown on Monday 15th June.