Wordaholics

Stephen Fry, Natalie Haynes, Milton Jones and Lloyd Langford vie for wordy supremacy in the ring.

Gyles Brandreth presides over toponyms, abbreviations, euphemisms, old words, new words, cockney rhyming slang, Greek gobbledegook, plus the panellists' picks of the ugliest and the most beautiful words.

Find out the meaning of words like giff-gaff, knock-knobbler and buckfitches - the difference between French marbles, French velvet and the French ache - hear the glorious poetry of the English language, as practiced from writers varying from William Shakespeare to Vanilla Ice - and spend half an hour laughing and learning with some of the finest Wordaholics in the business.

Written by Jon Hunter and James Kettle.

Producer: Claire Jones.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2012.

Stephen Fry, Natalie Haynes, Milton Jones and Lloyd Langford vie for wordy supremacy.

Stephen Fry, Natalie Haynes, Milton Jones and Lloyd Langford vie for wordy supremacy chaired by Gyles Brandreth. From 2012.

Gyles Brandreth presides as Natalie Haynes, Michael Rosen, Arthur Smith and Paul Sinha vie for supremacy in the ring.

~Wordaholics is clever, intelligent, witty and unexpected. There are toponyms, abbreviations, euphemisms, old words, new words, cockney rhyming slang, Greek gobbledegook, plus the panellists' picks of the ugliest and the most beautiful words: the whole world of words.

Writers: Jon Hunter and James Kettle

Producer: Claire Jones.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2012.

Natalie Haynes, Michael Rosen, Arthur Smith and Paul Sinha vie for wordy supremacy.

Gyles Brandreth presides over toponyms, abbreviations, euphemisms, old words, new words, cockney rhyming slang, Greek gobbledegook, plus the panellists' picks of the ugliest and the most beautiful words.

Ready to vie for wordy supremacy in the ring:

Written by Jon Hunter and James Kettle

Natalie Haynes, Michael Rosen, Arthur Smith and Paul Sinha vie for wordy supremacy. Chaired by Gyles Brandreth. From 2012.

Gyles Brandreth presides as Susie Dent, Natalie Haynes, Jack Whitehall and Milton Jones vie for supremacy in the ring.

~Wordaholics is clever, intelligent, witty and unexpected. There are toponyms, abbreviations, euphemisms, old words, new words, cockney rhyming slang, Greek gobbledegook, plus the panellists' picks of the ugliest and the most beautiful words: the whole world of words.

Writers: Jon Hunter and James Kettle

Producer: Claire Jones.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2012.

With panellists Susie Dent, Natalie Haynes, Milton Jones and Jack Whitehall.

Susie Dent, Natalie Haynes, Milton Jones and Jack Whitehall vie for wordy supremacy chaired by Gyles Brandreth. From 2012.

Gyles Brandreth presides over toponyms, abbreviations, euphemisms, old words, new words, cockney rhyming slang, Greek gobbledegook, plus the panellists' picks of the ugliest and the most beautiful words.

Ready to vie for wordy supremacy in the ring:

Written by Jon Hunter and James Kettle

Susie Dent, Natalie Haynes, Milton Jones and Jack Whitehall vie for wordy supremacy.

Susie Dent, Natalie Haynes, Milton Jones and Jack Whitehall vie for wordy supremacy. Hosted by Gyles Brandreth. From 2012.

Gyles Brandreth presides as Natalie Haynes, Michael Rosen, Arthur Smith and Paul Sinha vie for supremacy in the ring.

~Wordaholics is clever, intelligent, witty and unexpected. There are toponyms, abbreviations, euphemisms, old words, new words, cockney rhyming slang, Greek gobbledegook, plus the panellists' picks of the ugliest and the most beautiful words: the whole world of words.

Writers: Jon Hunter and James Kettle

Producer: Claire Jones.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2012.

With panellists Michael Rosen, Arthur Smith, Paul Sinha and Natalie Haynes.

Natalie Haynes, Michael Rosen, Arthur Smith and Paul Sinha vie for wordy supremacy chaired by Gyles Brandreth. From 2012.

Letter of the week is P which really packs a punch.

We learn why Susie Dent's favourite word is 'blurb', we find out what a Chicago Piano was and we listen as Jack Whitehall struggles to reduce to a tweet a particularly fruity passage from his father's autobiography.

Writers: James Kettle and Jon Hunter.

Producer: Claire Jones

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2012.

With panellists Jack Whitehall, Milton Jones, Natalie Haynes and Susie Dent.

~Wordaholics is the comedy panel game all about words.

Gyles Brandreth presides over toponyms, abbreviations, euphemisms, old words, new words, cockney rhyming slang, Greek gobbledegook, plus the panellists' picks of the ugliest and the most beautiful words.

Ready to vie for wordy supremacy in the ring:

Written by Jon Hunter and James Kettle

Jack Whitehall, Milton Jones, Natalie Haynes and Susie Dent vie for wordy supremacy chaired by Gyles Brandreth. From 2012.

Letter of the week is that cheeky 5th letter of the alphabet - F.

The panellists reveal their favourite words and invent new phobias.

Plus they try to guess the meaning of some words no longer in our common parlance, taken from a glossary of provincial words from Herefordshire in 1839. Yes - words such as cockshut, taplash, pulfin and giglet...

Writers: James Kettle and Jon Hunter.

Producer: Claire Jones

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2012.

With Richard Herring, Alex Horne and Jenny Eclair. Plus special guest: the letter F.

Richard Herring, Jenny Eclair, Alex Horne and Natalie Haynes vie for wordy supremacy chaired by Gyles Brandreth. From 2012.

Letter of the week is that cheeky 5th letter of the alphabet - F.

The panellists reveal their favourite words and invent new phobias.

Plus they try to guess the meaning of some words no longer in our common parlance, taken from a glossary of provincial words from Herefordshire in 1839. Yes - words such as cockshut, taplash, pulfin and giglet...

Writers: James Kettle and Jon Hunter.

Producer: Claire Jones

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2012.

With Richard Herring, Alex Horne and Jenny Eclair. Plus special guest: the letter F.

Milton Jones and Natalie Haynes compete against Susie Dent and Alun Cochrane to find out who knows the most.

Milton will be coining his own new fear over becoming a monk: 'cloisterphobia.

Alun's Yorkshire roots help him guess the meaning of the Polish word 'prozvonit';

Susie explains the origin of the phrase 'gingering up'.

Natalie tries to ban the word 'guesstimate'.

Writers: Jon Hunter and James Kettle.

Producer: Claire Jones

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2013.

Milton Jones, Susie Dent, Alun Cochrane and Natalie Haynes vie for verbal supremacy.

Katy Brand and Alex Horne compete against Richard Herring and Natalie Haynes to find out who knows more.

Katy Brand reveals an unexpected love of Proverbs in the Old Testament and takes a guess at what 'cougar juice' meant at the turn of the 20th century.

Richard Herring explains why his favourite West County word from his schooldays is 'wasp'.

Natalie Haynes guesses the meaning of the German word 'zechpreller' which has no direct translation in English

Alex Horne coins his very own onomatopoeia to describe a snowflake landing on a bubble.

Writers: Jon Hunter and James Kettle.

Producer: Claire Jones

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2013.

Katy Brand, Alex Horne, Richard Herring and Natalie Haynes vie for verbal supremacy.

Lloyd Langford and Susie Dent compete against Dave Gorman and Natalie Haynes to find out who knows more.

Dave Gorman guesses the meaning of the phrase 'living on Queen Street' from the late 1800s.

Natalie Haynes unravels the word 'autodysomophobia'.

Lloyd Langford guesses the meaning of the Yiddish word 'farpotshket'.

Susie Dent shares her love of the current Liverpool word 'twirlies' and explains the meaning of the word 'quockerwodger'.

Both teams also have a go at coming up with modern phrases to replace the old cliches 'When life gives you lemons, make lemonade' and 'Beauty is only skin deep'.

Writers: Jon Hunter and James Kettle.

Producer: Claire Jones

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2013.

Lloyd Langford, Susie Dent, Dave Gorman and Natalie Haynes compete in the verbal game show

Katy Brand and Alex Horne compete against Richard Herring and Natalie Haynes to find out who knows more.

Richard Herring decides to reclaim the word 'middle class' and tries to decipher the 16th century phrase 'a mare's nest'.

Team-mate Natalie Haynes tries to get rid of the word 'decimate' and despite being a vegetarian works out what the very meaty cookery term 'barding' means;

Alex Horne comes up with the correct definition for the Victorian phrase 'a scraping castle' and asks to take the word 'a' out of the dictionary.

Meanwhile, Katy Brand takes a guess at what the unit of measurement 'the Warhol' is and reveals that her favourite word is 'plop'.

Writers: Jon Hunter and James Kettle.

Producer: Claire Jones

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2013.

Katy Brand, Alex Horne, Richard Herring and Natalie Haynes compete in the wordy panel game

Milton Jones and Robin Ince compete against Natalie Haynes and Lloyd Langford for wordy supremacy.

The Letter of the Week is 'W'. Lloyd Langford hazards a guess as to what 'Welsh cricket' is while Natalie Haynes has to work out what 'Whistling breeches' are.

In a round about Australian slang Robin Ince tries to guess the meaning of 'guttergripper' while Milton Jones takes a stab at 'shypoo'.

All the panellists come up with some brilliant new toponyms and also reveal their pet-hate words.

Writers: Jon Hunter and James Kettle.

Producer: Claire Jones

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2013.

Milton Jones, Natalie Haynes, Lloyd Langford and Robin Ince vie for verbal supremacy.

Susie Dent and Lloyd Langford compete against Dave Gorman and Natalie Haynes for wordy supremacy.

Susie Dent reveals two of her favourite now-defunct words from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary are 'pandiculation' (to stretch while yawning) and 'snirtle' (to laugh in a quiet and restrained manner).

Dave Gorman comes up with a new cliche to replace 'Curiosity Killed the Cat, while Natalie Haynes tells us what the Cockney rhyming slang 'a Basil' refers to

Lloyd Langford asks the meaning of 'dumpoke' from the 1903 dictionary, 'Hobson Jobson - A Glossary of Anglo Indian Colloquial Words and Phrases' (a book which Susie Dent claims is 'a very good read').

Writers: Jon Hunter and James Kettle.

Producer: Claire Jones

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2013.

Dave Gorman, Susie Dent, Lloyd Langford and Natalie Haynes vie for verbal supremacy.

Lloyd Langford tells us why avocados are called avocados; Natalie Haynes explains what 'astroturfing' is all about; Paul Sinha unlocks the meaning of the German word 'handschuhsanbalwerfer' and Holly Walsh shares her favourite example of prison slang.

The panel also suggest words that don't yet exist, but should. What could they mean by 'a Clarkson', 'messcalation', 'trage' and 'appointmentia'?

Writers: Jon Hunter and James Kettle

Producer: Claire Jones

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2014

Paul Sinha, Natalie Haynes, Holly Walsh and Lloyd Langford join host Gyles Brandreth.

Lexicographer Susie Dent admits to the words she finds most difficult to spell; science lover Helen Keen grumpily dismantles the portmanteau word 'murse'; Natalie Haynes works out what 'kyacting' is, and does some to boot; while Josh Widdecombe tries to ban the word 'chilllax'.

The panel also guess what some foreign words which have no direct equivalent in English.

Writers: Jon Hunter and James Kettle.

Producer: Claire Jones

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2014.

Josh Widdicombe, Helen Keen, Susie Dent and Natalie Haynes join chair Gyles Brandreth.

Letter of the week is 'N' and there's a round about derogatory terms.

Panellists also attempt to ban their least favourite words including 'simples'.

Writers: Jon Hunter and James Kettle.

Producer: Claire Jones.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2014.

Ed Byrne, Milton Jones, Hannah Gadsby and Natalie Haynes join chair Gyles Brandreth.

Gyles Brandreth is in the chair.

The letter of the week is 'L'.

The panellists are asked to invent new words or phrases - and there are rounds about terms for different occupations and Victorian slang terms.

Writers: Jon Hunter and James Kettle.

Producer: Claire Jones.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2014.

Josh Widdicombe, Susie Dent, Helen Keen and Natalie Haynes join Gyles Brandreth.

Gyles Brandreth is in the chair.

The letter of the week is the sinuous letter 'S'.

The panellists play a round about portmanteau words - and get to guess the meaning of some foreign words which have no direct equivalent in English.

And they also try to ban the words which drive them most mad.

Writers: Jon Hunter and James Kettle.

Producer: Claire Jones.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2014.

Lloyd Langford, Holly Walsh, Paul Sinha and Natalie Haynes join Gyles Brandreth.

The panellists play a round about portmanteau words – and get to guess the meaning of some foreign words which have no direct equivalent in English.

Gyles Brandreth is in the chair.

The letter of the week is 'Z'.

The panellists must coin their own toponyms and they also have to guess which foreign words are edible.

There's a chance to add their own new word to the dictionary, before they delve into 'A Dictionary of Americanisms' from 1848.

Writers: Jon Hunter and James Kettle.

Producer: Claire Jones.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2014.

Ed Byrne, Milton Jones, Hannah Gadsby and Natalie Haynes join Gyles Brandreth.