Learn English – Is “tnetennba” a real word

is-it-a-wordsingle-word-requests

I've seen and heard the word "tnetennba" used, most famously by Moss in an episode of the IT Crowd in which he was a contestant on a fake episode of the TV show Countdown. In this episode, no definition of the word is given by when asked, Moss uses the word in a sentence as follows;

Good morning, that’s a nice tnetennba

I am trying to establish whether this is a real word or not, which is difficult since language is always changing. I've found multiple sites stating that the word was made up purely for the show and some others saying that the word itself is nothing more than a mechanism for generating traffic to a website, among others.

Is "tnetennba" a real word, and if so, what does it mean?

Best Answer

I'm afraid it's not a real word, and the inability to find it any dictionary will confirm that.

Richard Ayoade used the 9 letters on the countdown board in a humorous manner as, had it been a real word, it would have won.

The episode in question was not a "real" episode of Countdown - I believe it was an episode of The IT Crowd.