Fun With Words: Palindromes

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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Sharon on February 13, 2008 | Filed Under Vocabulary

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13 Responses to “Fun With Words: Palindromes”

Reader 37 on February 13th, 2008 6:15 pm

“Weird Al” Yankovic’s song, “Bob”, is made up entirely of palindromes.
Sharon on February 14th, 2008 1:34 pm

Thanks for the info, Reader37; I didn’t know that.
Azhar on February 15th, 2008 9:58 am

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

AZHAR
Sharon on February 15th, 2008 12:29 pm

Glad you enjoyed it, Azhar
Corey on February 16th, 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.
Sharon on February 16th, 2008 12:08 pm

Now that IS a fun fact, Corey. Thanks for sharing.
Shankar Ganesh on February 17th, 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
Sharon on February 17th, 2008 12:40 pm

Programming palindromes? Another new application. Thanks for the info, Shankar.
Craig on February 19th, 2008 7:21 pm

Any don’t forget the famous Monty Python parrot skit - when they used Bolton and Notlob as the train station!
Sharon on February 20th, 2008 10:39 am

Ah yes, the ex-parrot - how could I forget
Najat on February 27th, 2008 9:57 am

nice informations, thanks mua
kirsty on April 12th, 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 ^-^
Sharon on April 13th, 2008 1:31 pm

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