Spoilers for Tuesday 3rd October 2023 (Series 88, Heat 68)

[Stewart Gordon]

Not sure why this hadn't been started already.

"There will not be back-to-back nines from Flo-Glo, because we've got a Q, no U at all."

Has this actually been confirmed, that there are no 9-letter Q-without-U words in the dictionary?

[Thomas Carey]

Used to be the case. Nowadays you have MGQASHIYO and friends

[Philip A]

Not sure why this hadn't been started already.

"There will not be back-to-back nines from Flo-Glo, because we've got a Q, no U at all."

Has this actually been confirmed, that there are no 9-letter Q-without-U words in the dictionary?

For some reason, MGQASHIYO is a possible regular conundrum on Apterous. Strange, but true. Think it might be the only U-less Q 9? One I know of isn’t a 9, but there’s MBAQANGA which is a style of music in South Africa. It’s a mass noun so it doesn’t take an S.

If proper nouns were permitted, Qabalists would also be 9.

[Sam Cappleman-Lynes]

Think it might be the only U-less Q 9?

Here are all the U-less Q words of 9 letters or more:

ACQHIRING
MGQASHIYO
MGQASHIYOS
MQHASHIYO
MQHASHIYOS
NASTALIQS
NOTARIQON
NOTARIQONS

[Philip A]

Think it might be the only U-less Q 9?

Here are all the U-less Q words of 9 letters or more:

ACQHIRING
MGQASHIYO
MGQASHIYOS
MQHASHIYO
MQHASHIYOS
NASTALIQS
NOTARIQON
NOTARIQONS

Nice work. Thanks.

[Stewart Gordon]

Here are all the U-less Q words of 9 letters or more:

ACQHIRING
MGQASHIYO
MGQASHIYOS
MQHASHIYO
MQHASHIYOS
NASTALIQS
NOTARIQON
NOTARIQONS

By "all" do you mean "all in the Countdown dictionary" or "all in the English language as a whole"?

[Sam Cappleman-Lynes]

In the Countdown dictionary.