Economics

[jancsika]

Yes it looks like a plural but it isn't really. I don't think there is any such noun as an "economic" and in any case it is normally treated as singular: "Economics is a social science" etc.

I think it should be included as a common word.

[Morbius]

I agree.  Indeed, there are many fields of knowledge that end in 's' but aren't plurals.  Most of them aren't accepted but should be in my view.

[Roddles]

I tried it, for exactly the same reason. Wasn't surprised to get rejected, but just a little puzzled as to what was an 'economic'.

[Alan W]

The OED does give some obsolete senses of economic as a noun, but in contemporary usage - i.e. the last 300 years or so - it is only used as an adjective. From now on economics will be allowed.

Yes, indeed, there are quite a few other words in the same boat: please feel free to make suggestions about other such words. I notice that there are also some -ics words that are not excluded as plurals. A few of those (physics, sonics) were accepted following specific requests, but all the others are ten letters or longer. Acrobatics, aerobatics, astrophysics, gerontotherapeutics, etc. It seems that I tried to identify those sort of words when I was extending the word list for ten-letter puzzles, and then for words of any length that might come up in 7-by-many puzzles.

[Jacki]

Alan will ECONOMICS be accepted as a rare or common word?

[Alan W]

Common

[Ozzyjack]

There is no part of that answer that I didn’t understand.