Thinking up words that read the same backward and forward, also known as palindromes, can be a fun brain teaser or way to test your creativity and writing skills. We came up with more than 50 palindromes of all sorts to help you get started!
Let’s start by highlighting some single-word palindromes, many of which you may not have realized are palindromes and are likely already a part of your everyday vocabulary:
Bib
Civic
Dad
Deed
Dewed
Kayak
Level
Madam
Mom
Noon
Nun
Peep
Pop
Racecar
Radar
Redder
Refer
Rotator
Rotor
Sagas
Solos
Stats
Tenet
Wow
The longest single-word palindrome in English is tattarrattat, which was coined by James Joyce in his groundbreaking novel, Ulysses, to imitate the sound of a knock on a door – also making it an onomatopoeia!
However, the longest single-word palindrome in any language is saippuakivikauppias, the Finnish word for a soapstone trader.
When a palindrome consists of more than one word, spacing, punctuation, and capitalization are typically ignored. Here are a few examples of multi-word palindromes:
Bird rib
Taco cat
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My gym
Top spot
And some examples of palindrome phrases and sentences:
Don’t nod
I did, did I?
No lemon, no melon
Never odd or even
Step on no pets!
We panic in a pew
He lived as a devil, eh?
Sir, I demand, I am a maid named Iris
Now, sir, a war is won!
Won’t lovers revolt now?
Was it a car or a cat I saw?
Madam, in Eden, I’m Adam
A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!
Eva, can I see bees in a cave?
Palindromes aren’t limited to just words; they can also be numbers (e.g., 1,234,321 or the palindromic prime, 191) and dates (e.g., the recent “twosday” on 22-02-2022) that read the same backward and forward.
There can be names that are palindromes, even some full names:
Anna
Bob
Elle
Eve
Hannah
Orro
Pip
Mark Kram, a sportswriter most known for his boxing coverage
Sara Baras, a Spanish flamenco dancer and choreographer
Stanley Yelnats, the protagonist in Louis Sachar’s novel, Holes
As long as you don’t have aibohphobia (the unofficial fear of palindromes, which is also a palindrome itself!), why not try creating palindromes of your own? If you’re publishing a piece of creative writing, palindromes are a great way to offer a little extra entertainment for your readers! And once you’ve got a draft ready, we have expert editors ready to help make sure it’s error-free. Upload a free trial document today to learn more!
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