The weird and wonderful world of the English language can sometimes give you that ‘oh yeah, I hadn’t noticed that before’ feeling. So here’s one to get those brain cells working.
Civic, radar, level, rotor, noon, kayak, reviver, racecar, redder, wow, madam and refer are all words classified as a palindrome – a word, phase, number or element that reads the same backwards as it does forwards. I know, you’re reading them again now aren’t you!
The word palindrome comes from the Greek word ‘palin’ meaning ‘again’ and ‘dromos’ meaning ‘way’ or ‘direction’.
There are literally hundreds of palindromes in the English language and there are even some palindrome sentences that can make sense too! When creating a palindrome sentence it isn’t important whether the actual syllables match both ways, only that the letters are correct.
What palindrome words or sentences can you come up with? Here’s some to get you started:
- Civic
- Radar
- Level
- Rotor
- Noon
- Kayak
- Reviver
- Racecar
- Redder
- Wow
- Madam
- Refer
- Hannah
- Mum
- Dad
- Bob
- Pop
- Was it a car or a cat I saw?
- A nut for a jar of tuna
- Live not on Evil
- Never odd or even
- A Toyota
- Rise to vote sir
- No lemon, no melon
- Step on no pets