apterous.org

You might run into some of the following specialist vocabulary around apterous or in chat. You're not expected to remember this list! But it might provide a useful reference later. The names of variants are given on the Facts & Figures: Variants page rather than here.

Aptathlon

A team competition in which everyone works together to get the greatest overall score.

apterite

A player of apterous.

aptodic

The list of words valid on apterous. Typically refers only to the English-language list.

blitz

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

c4countdown, a.k.a. c4c

The most popular online Countdown forum.

CA, Conundrum Attack.

A format of 20 consecutive conundrums and nothing else.

Classic Game.

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

Championship of Champions, an intermittent televised Countdown tournament.

Co-event

An unofficial Countdown tournament, e.g. CoLin (Countdown in Lincoln), CoLon (Countdown in London), etc.

darren

The longest word in a round which has only one such word.

DC

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

format

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.

gotw

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

To buzz in immediately for the conundrum. Named in honour of Jeffrey Hansford, who allegedly Hansforded in his television appearances.

high score format

Certain formats considered important by the apterous community are elevated to the status of high score formats. These formats are treated specially in various ways; they appear (naturally enough) in the high scores tables, we collect various other statistics about them, they are given specific names, etc. New formats are occasionally given high score status.

gl

Good luck!

gg

Good game!

gn

Good night.

LA, Letters Attack.

A format of 20 consecutive letters rounds and nothing else.

max

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

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

metamax

In formats with a max that the players can control, the metamax is the highest max that could have been achieved.

n1

Nice one!

NA, Numbers Attack.

A format of 20 consecutive numbers rounds and nothing else.

nom

A nomination for Game of the Week.

Owl Licence

noun. 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

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

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

raw scores

Raw scores are computed slightly different from the usual in-game scores; see "What are raw scores?". They are particularly relevant in high score formats.

scramble

a set of letters from which is is implied that the letters will form a word of that length. For example, "the scramble is AERLITON, the solution is RELATION".

selection

a set of letters from which a word must be found, not necessarily using all the letters. eg "I got FORMAT from the selection MORATUKEF". Can also refer to the set of working numbers in a numbers round, e.g. "5 5 7 9 1 8 is a difficult selection".

stem

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. eg "RELATION is a useful stem, because RELATION+A makes RATIONALE".

ty

Thank you!

ul

Unlucky. (Commonly said after an opponent has a plausible word disallowed.)

variant

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.

vg

Very good.

vn

Very nice. (Commonly said after a good word or solution from one's opponent.)

vwp

Very well played.

wd

Well done.

wp

Well played.