Spoilers for Wednesday 2 November 2022 (Series 40, Heat 40)

[Johnny Canuck]

Actually Series 86, Heat 98, but renamed for celebratory purposes.

[Johnny Canuck]

"There's no N for ENTAILS."

Unless you're reading the subtitles during the selection

[Gavin Chipper]

Isn't it the 40th November in the year 40?

(Don't actually change it to that. It could be confusing for people looking for this thread later.)

[Johnny Canuck]

Isn't it the 40th November in the year 40?

(Don't actually change it to that. It could be confusing for people looking for this thread later.)

40 CE (Countdown Era).

[Howie Myers]

r2 alt: DELIMITS
r7 alt: CONKIEST

[samir pilica]

Not sure Conkiest would be valid.

[Gavin Chipper]

It's not on Apterous. No conky either.

[Philip A]

r7 alt: CONKIEST

Howie, I think you still have the wrong dictionary. Alternatively, if you don’t have ODP, you can subscribe to Apterous.org (highly recommended BTW) and look up the word in Lexplorer in the top right of the page, which is extremely accurate. On Lexplorer, conky x, conkier x and conkiest x come up as invalid. You also have to bear in mind that Oxford’s dictionaries quite often lack comparatives and superlatives; there’s aren’t as many -IER/-IEST words as you’d might think, in other words. Comparatives and superlatives must be specified if an adjective’s head word has more than one syllable, as per Countdown rules. Not every verb goes with every prefix and suffix in ODP either (so words like undertie x and undertray x are no good). Checking on Apto/ODP beforehand saves you from suggesting invalid words on here and relying on others to verify (TBF a free checker would be nice). Hope this explains.

FTR, I tried stetson x in Round 1 but alas, it’s a trademark with a capital S.

[Fiona T]

r7 alt: CONKIEST

Howie, I think you still have the wrong dictionary. Alternatively, if you don’t have ODP, you can subscribe to Apterous (highly recommended BTW) and look up the word in Lexplorer in the top right of the page, which is extremely accurate. On Lexplorer, conky x, conkier x and conkiest x come up as invalid. You also have to bear in mind that Oxford’s dictionaries quite often lack comparatives and superlatives; there’s aren’t as many -IER/-IEST words as you’d might think, in other words. Not every verb goes with every prefix and suffix in ODP either. Checking on Apto/ODP beforehand saves you from suggesting invalid words on here and relying on others to verify (TBF a free checker would be nice). Hope this explains.

FTR, I tried stetson x in Round 1 but alas, it’s a trademark with a capital S.

On the other hand, others are happy to verify words, so if Howie doesn't want to fork out £15 quid for the pleasure, then that's no problem

[Philip A]

Apologies for the obsessive tone of the original comment. Just that it seemed it was valid and thought I’d help. On a separate note, Lexplorer on C4C should be a thing.

[Fiona T]

Well TCC's website can be used to check validity without paying a subscription - works best on a mobile, but useable with a bit of scrolling on a laptop

http://tcsquared.azurewebsites.net/cohost

[Philip A]

Well TCC's website can be used to check validity without paying a subscription - works best on a mobile, but useable with a bit of scrolling on a laptop

http://tcsquared.azurewebsites.net/cohost

Nice find! Thanks.

[Andres Sanchez]

Well TCC's website can be used to check validity without paying a subscription - works best on a mobile, but useable with a bit of scrolling on a laptop

http://tcsquared.azurewebsites.net/cohost

Really wish I can click/tap on the words for them to bring me to their definition, think with Lexico gone, Tom's probably linked it to some pay-to-use OED site, which I can totally understand but wish I could scrounge up the cash for it.

[Howie Myers]

r7 alt: CONKIEST

Howie, I think you still have the wrong dictionary. Alternatively, if you don’t have ODP, you can subscribe to Apterous (highly recommended BTW) and look up the word in Lexplorer in the top right of the page, which is extremely accurate. On Lexplorer, conky x, conkier x and conkiest x come up as invalid. You also have to bear in mind that Oxford’s dictionaries quite often lack comparatives and superlatives; there’s aren’t as many -IER/-IEST words as you’d might think, in other words. Not every verb goes with every prefix and suffix in ODP either. Checking on Apto/ODP beforehand saves you from suggesting invalid words on here and relying on others to verify (TBF a free checker would be nice). Hope this explains.

FTR, I tried stetson x in Round 1 but alas, it’s a trademark with a capital S.

On the other hand, others are happy to verify words, so if Howie doesn't want to fork out £15 quid for the pleasure, then that's no problem

point taken. Thanks