Susan Dent (born November 1964)
Early life and education
Dent was born in Woking, Surrey.
She was educated at the Marist Convent in Ascot, an independent
Roman Catholic day school,
[ Times Educational Supplement; 1 August 2008] with a term at
Eton College to study for
Oxbridge entrance exams.
[ Jack Blackburn, "Tales from an Old Etonienne", The Times, 26 July 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2020] She went on to Somerville College, Oxford, to read for a BA in modern languages, then to Princeton University to read for a master's degree in
German language.
Upon graduation she spent a year in New York teaching German, until her visa expired and she returned to the UK.
Career
Dent is well known as the resident lexicographer and adjudicator for the letters rounds on Channel 4's longest-running game show,
Countdown. She began working on
Countdown in 1992 at the insistence of her boss, Simon, at Oxford University Press (OUP). She had recently switched roles to work on compiling English dictionaries, having previously worked on bilingual dictionaries.
At first she declined the
Countdown offer, but her boss explained that her appearance on the show formed part of her OUP employment contract and she agreed to take the role.
On each episode, she provides a brief commentary on the origin of a particular word or phrase. Dent is the longest-serving member of the show's current on-screen team, first appearing in 1992; she has since made more than 5,000 appearances.
Dent appeared as herself in an episode of the BBC sitcom Not Going Out.
Dent presented Channel 4 web series Susie Dent's Guide to Swearing, which explored the etymology and history of select English swear words.
In 2019, Dent launched the gold award podcast, Something Rhymes With Purple, co-hosted with her friend Gyles Brandreth;
In 2023, Dent embarked on a solo tour, The Secret Lives of Words.
Dent co-wrote a romantic radio drama with Peter Souter, Only One Word for Love, that was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 ahead of Valentine's Day in 2025.
She has been honorary vice-president of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading since 2016, as well as an Honorary Fellow and vice-president of the Chartered Institute of Linguists since 2023.
Dent was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2024 Birthday Honours for services to literature and to language.
Published books
From 2003 to 2007, Dent was the author of a series of yearly
for the Oxford University Press (OUP). The first was simply titled
The Language Report, and this was followed by
Larpers and Shroomers (2004);
Fanboys and Overdogs (2005);
The Like, Language Report for Real (2006); and
The Language Report: English on the Move 2000–2007 (2007). The format of this publication was revised for 2008 as an A–Z collection of new and newly resurrected words. It was published in October 2008 as
Words of the Year ().
In 2005, the same publisher issued Winning Words (), and in 2009, What Made the Crocodile Cry? 101 questions about the English language (). Dent's book about dialects, How to Talk Like a Local (), was published in March 2010.
Her first novel, Guilty by Definition, was published in August 2024.
+List of published books |
|
| November 2003 | The Language Report: The Ultimate Record of What We're Saying and How We're Saying It | 151 | Oxford University Press |
| November 2004 | Larpers and Shroomers: The Language Report | 174 | Oxford University Press |
| September 2005 | Winning Words | 32 | Oxford University Press |
| January 2006 | Fanboys and Overdogs | 163 | Oxford University Press |
| January 2007 | The Like, Language Report for Real | 176 | Oxford University Press |
| December 2007 | The Language Report: English on the Move 2000–2007 | 166 | Oxford University Press |
| October 2008 | Words of the Year | 148 | Oxford University Press |
| November 2008 | How to Talk Like a Local: From Cockney to Geordie | 256 | Random House |
| October 2009 | What Made the Crocodile Cry? 101 Questions About the English Language | 159 | Oxford University Press |
| August 2012 | Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (Editor) | 1568 | John Murray Learning |
| November 2013 | Susie Dent's Weird Words | 176 | Scholastic Non-Fiction |
| October 2017 | Dent's Modern Tribes: The Secret Languages of Britain | 336 | John Murray |
| October 2020 | Word Perfect: Etymological Entertainment For Every Day of the Year | 419 | John Murray |
|
| October 2022 | An Emotional Dictionary: Real Words For How You Feel | 336 | John Murray |
| September 2023 | Interesting Stories about Curious Words | 432 | John Murray |
| October 2023 | Roots of Happiness | 128 | Penguin Random House Children's UK |
| August 2024 | Guilty by Definition | 400 | Zaffre |
|
Personal life
Dent was married to Paul Atkins, a teacher, and has two daughters.
They separated in 2021.
Dent is an Arsenal supporter.
External links
