People have been left well and truly stunned by an old Countdown answer that was so rude, they had to take it out of the episode altogether.

The British game show has seen a whole plethora of weird and wonderful answers over the decades, but it's clear this one answer in question was far from what anyone was expecting.

All about outsmarting one's rivals by displaying a high level of numerical agility and lexical prowess - this particular contestant was clearly thinking outside the box when he landed on the extremely explicit answer.

In the clip, which was never aired, the letters S, R, K, D, U, A, E, W and N are displayed when the contestant, Lawrence, told judges he had come up with a word containing an impressive seven letters out of the nine on show.

BBC

"Let's hear Lawrence's seven please," the host asks only to be met with a very NSFW answer.

Lawrence, through gritted teeth, replies: "Not sure if I dare say this one..."

With that said, however, he reveals the scandalous seven-letter word that begins with a W and ends with an S - reckon you can guess what it is?

Yep, the Countdown contestant revealed to national television that the best word he could come up with, given the set of letters on offer, was none other than 'w*nkers'.

Yikes.

The audience erupted into a chorus of laughter as the host hit out: "Well, it certainly is said by many people there's no question about it - w*nkers."

And it's clear Lawrence wasn't alone in the risqué answer as fellow contestant, Gino, also opted for the same word.

Considering the naughty word in question is actually in the dictionary - officially defined as 'a contemptible person (used as a general term of abuse) - the hosts would have had no choice but to allow it according to game rules.

BBC

The BBC clip has since surfaced on social media and people are losing their minds over the hilariously cringe-worthy moment.

Amidst the avalanche of crying laughing emojis, one TikTok user posted: "Opportunity like this comes once in a lifetime, well played."

Well played indeed.

"How can he keep a straight face," praised a second, "keeping professional to the last bit."

And a third penned: "Brilliant sense of humour, true bravery and British humour."

That's for sure.

"That explosion of laughter," added another, while a fifth called the contestant a 'legend' for his bold choice in answer.

Bet no one saw that coming.