Fun With Words: Palindromes

by Sharon

Palindromes are words, phrases or number sequences that read the same way in both directions. Palindrome derives from the Greek for ‘running back again’. Both the Greeks and Romans are known to have enjoyed palindromes. The Greeks also published palindromic poetry.

Common words that are palindromes include:

  • civic
  • eye
  • level
  • nun
  • pop
  • radar

Some famous palindrome phrases are:

  • Able was I ere I saw Elba
  • A man, a plan, a canal – Panama!
  • Madam, I’m Adam

There are many more examples on the Thinks.com Palindrome Parade.

Other palindrome forms use words or lines, rather than letters, as the unit to be repeated. See some examples here.

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15 Responses to “Fun With Words: Palindromes”

  1. Reader 37 on February 13, 2008 6:15 pm

    “Weird Al” Yankovic’s song, “Bob”, is made up entirely of palindromes.

  2. Sharon on February 14, 2008 1:34 pm

    Thanks for the info, Reader37; I didn’t know that.

  3. Azhar on February 15, 2008 9:58 am

    ITS REALLY A NEW BUT UNIQUE TOPIC AT LEAST FOR ME…..THANKS.

    AZHAR

  4. Sharon on February 15, 2008 12:29 pm

    Glad you enjoyed it, Azhar

  5. Corey on February 16, 2008 7:34 am

    Fun info! I used to live in a town named Yreka and the local bakery was named Yreka Bakery. Don’t know if they realized when they named it that the name is a palindrome.

  6. Sharon on February 16, 2008 12:08 pm

    Now that IS a fun fact, Corey. Thanks for sharing.

  7. Shankar Ganesh on February 17, 2008 9:35 am

    Haha! Just on time.

    I was being taught last week how to program using the C Language to check if a string is palindrome or not ;-)

  8. Sharon on February 17, 2008 12:40 pm

    Programming palindromes? Another new application. Thanks for the info, Shankar.

  9. Craig on February 19, 2008 7:21 pm

    Any don’t forget the famous Monty Python parrot skit – when they used Bolton and Notlob as the train station!

  10. Sharon on February 20, 2008 10:39 am

    Ah yes, the ex-parrot – how could I forget ;)

  11. Najat on February 27, 2008 9:57 am

    nice informations, thanks mua

  12. kirsty on April 12, 2008 4:43 pm

    here’s some in dutch:

    parterretrap (I really don’t know how to discribe that ^-^)

    meetsysteem (measuringsystem)

    lepel (spoon)

    neven (cousins)

    appologies for any misspelled words ^-^

  13. Sharon on April 13, 2008 1:31 pm

    Thanks, Kirsty. You can have fun with words in any language, can’t you?

  14. Norman on August 24, 2008 1:35 am

    U can put many palindrome word,
    If u can put it plssssssssssssss!

  15. Fredrick on October 28, 2008 3:56 pm

    Someone can show me the words EYE in palindrome using c program.
    Thank You.

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