Palindrome

: For the movie, see Palindromes (movie)

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A palindrome is a word, phrase, number or any other sequence of units (like a strand of DNA) which has the property of reading the same in either direction (the adjustment of spaces between letters is generally permitted). The word "palindrome" comes from the Greek words palin ("back") and dromos ("racecourse"). Writing literature in palindromes is an example of constrained writing.

Related Topics:
Number - DNA - Greek - Constrained writing

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According to Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That Way (p. 227): "Palindromes … are at least 2,000 years old. The ancient Greeks often put "ΝΙΨΟΝΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑΜΗΜΟΝΑΝΟΨΙΝ" (or, in mixed case with accents and divided into words, Νίψον ανομήματα μη μόναν όψιν: "Nipson anomēmata mē monan opsin") on fountains (ps, ψ, is one letter in Greek, called psi), meaning "Wash the sin as well as the face." The Romans admired them, too, as demonstrated by "In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni" ("We enter the circle at night and are consumed by fire"), which was said to describe the behavior of moths.

Related Topics:
Bill Bryson - Psi

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The Latin palindrome "Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas" (translation is problematic, as the sentence is grammatically flawed; for further discussion, see separate article) is remarkable for the fact that it reproduces itself also if one forms a word from the first letters, then the second letters and so forth. Hence it can also be arranged into a square which can be read either horizontally or vertically and from left to right or right to left and also top to bottom or bottom to top:

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S A T O R

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A R E P O

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T E N E T

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O P E R A

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R O T A S

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The comedy singer "Weird Al" Yankovic produced a song entirely of rhyming palindromes on his 2003 album Poodle Hat, called "Bob", both because the name Bob is a palindrome, and also likely as a reference to Bob Dylan, whose singing style and harmonica he emulated. The singer and guitarist Baby Gramps wrote and performs a song entitled "palindromes."

Related Topics:
"Weird Al" Yankovic - Poodle Hat - Bob Dylan - Baby Gramps

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Palindromes occur in many western languages, but they are particularly prevalent in English due to the wide variety and frequent reversal of letter pairs within words. Finnish, however, has been described as "the language of palindromes."

Related Topics:
English - Finnish

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Japanese palindromes, called kaibun, rely on the hiragana syllabary, like the word "shinbunshi" (newsprint). Their syllabary makes it possible to make very long palindromes.

Related Topics:
Japanese - Kaibun - Hiragana - Syllabary

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Chinese palindromes are relatively easy to create due to the structure of written Chinese. For example: 我愛媽媽,媽媽愛我 ("I love Mom; Mom loves me")—this is usually the first palindrome learned by Chinese kids. Numerous palindromes can be created by replacing "媽媽"(Mom) with any person. As a result, only very special palindromes are worth mentioning.

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In genetics, a palindromic DNA sequence can form a hairpin.

Related Topics:
Genetics - DNA - Hairpin

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Examples of palindromic words and phrases:

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