apterous.org

There are many neologisms, slang terms and initialisms that are used around the apterous world, most of which are not valid words in the game itself! You will almost certainly encounter some of them within the first five minutes of playing the game, so here's a comprehensive guide. You're not expected to remember the whole list, but it should make a useful reference later on. The names of variants are given on the Facts & Figures: Variants page rather than here. If there's any jargon confusing you that's not listed here - just ask!

Aptathlon

n. a team competition in which everyone works together to get the greatest overall score; see the list of Aptathlons

apterite

n. a player of apterous

blitz

n. a popular type of format with 10-second rounds and no numbers rounds, e.g. standard blitz

c4countdown, a.k.a. c4c

n. the most popular online Countdown forum

CA, Conundrum Attack

n. a format of 20 consecutive conundrums and nothing else

Classic Game

n. a round-for-round recreation of a game from the television programme Countdown that you can play along with, found under the "Solo Player" menu in the game

CoC

n. Championship of Champions, an intermittent televised Countdown tournament

Co-event

n. an unofficial Countdown tournament, e.g. CoLin (Countdown in Lincoln), CoLon (Countdown in London)

DC

n. Dictionary Corner, the in-game arbiter for the validity of words

format

n. a particular set-up of variant, language, rounds, time per round etc. The number of formats is essentially infinite, but high score formats are considered particularly significant

gg

abb. good game

gl

abb. good luck

gn

abb. good night

gotw

n. Game of the Week; a system of nominations and voting by which the apterous community selects certain games each week as being particularly awesome

Hansford

v. to buzz in immediately for the conundrum, named in honour of Jeffrey Hansford, who allegedly Hansforded in his television appearances

LA, Letters Attack

n. a format of 20 consecutive letters rounds and nothing else

max

n. the best possible solution to a given round; either the longest word in a letters round, the best possible solution in a numbers round, or a correct solution to the conundrum

max game

n. a game in which a player got the max in every round

metamax

n. in formats with a max that the players can control, the highest max that could have been achieved

n1

abb. nice one

NA, Numbers Attack

n. a format of 20 consecutive numbers rounds and nothing else

np

abb. no problem

ODE

n. Oxford Dictionary of English

Owl Licence

n. while anyone can run a tournament, only holders of the Owl Licence can start them without admin approval. The Licence is normally granted after someone has successfully run two tournaments and five rounds (spread across any number of tournaments)

pencil

n. an inventory item awarded for being the first person to offer a particular word as a maximum

v. to offer a particular word as a maximum for the first time

raw scores

n. scores computed slightly differently from the usual in-game scores, and particularly relevant in high score formats; see "What are raw scores?"

selection

n. a set of letters from which a word must be found, not necessarily using all the letters; can also refer to the set of working numbers in a numbers round
I got FORMAT from the selection MORATUKEF.

stem

n. a set of letters (often itself a valid word) which, when an extra letter is added to it, can rearrange to form a new, longer word
RELATION is a useful stem, because RELATION+A makes RATIONALE.

ty

abb. thank you

ul

abb. unlucky; commonly said after an opponent has a plausible word disallowed

variant

n. a version of the game in which the rules are somewhat different. Some variants, such as Hyper, are just slight extensions to the basic game; others, such as Duckdown, may be radically different. The modified rules are always available on the Facts & Figures: Variants page, and in the Rules tab of the game window itself

vn

abb. very nice; commonly said after a good word or solution from one's opponent

vwp

abb. very well played

wb

abb. welcome back

wd

abb. well done

wp

abb. well played