palindrome

See also: Palindrome

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek παλίνδρομος (palíndromos, “running back again”), from πάλιν (pálin, “back, again, back again”) δρόμος (drómos, “running, race, racecourse”). By surface analysis, palin- ‎ -drome (compare also velodrome and syndrome).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpælɪndɹəʊm/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpælɪndɹoʊm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

Examples
“Rise to vote, sir” (sentence palindrome) level, madam, racecar (single word palindromes)

palindrome (plural palindromes)

1. A word, phrase, number or any other sequence of units which has the property of reading the same forwards as it does backwards, character for character, sometimes disregarding punctuation, capitalization and diacritics.
   • 2017, Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird, spoken by Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson:

     The only thing exciting about 2002 is that it's a palindrome.

2. (by extension) A poetic form in which the sequence of words reads the same in either direction.
3. (by extension) A sequence of items that follows the same pattern both forwards and backwards.
   • 1998, Dolores Pesce, Hearing the Motet, page 93:

     A conjunct palindrome from notes 5 to 11, D D E F E D D, abuts the only melodically disjunct group E G D (notes 12–14), and at the same time contributes to a melodic sequence with the opening four notes.

   • 2010, Mick Herron, Slow Horses, page 67:

     The shops opposite were a High Street palindrome — Korean gorocery, courier service, letting abgents, courier service, Korean grocery — and buses passed with noisy frequency.

   • 2015, Syne Mitchell, Inventive Weaving on a Little Loom:

     The color sequence in the palindrome skein is the same no metter whether you start from the left or right.

4. (genetics) A stretch of DNA in which the sequence of nucleotides on one strand are in the reverse order to that of the complementary strand

Coordinate terms

• aibohphobia
• anagram
• semordnilap

Derived terms

• (genetics): massive palindrome
• (en, linguistics): : semi-palindrome

Translations

a sequence of units that reads the same forwards as backwards

• Abkhaz: апалиндром (apʼalindrom)
• Afrikaans: palindroom (af)
• Albanian: palindromi
• Arabic: قَلْب مُسْتَوٍ m (qalb mustawin)
• Armenian: պալինդրոմ (hy) (palindrom), դարձգիր (darjgir)
• Assamese: পেলিনড্ৰোম (pelinodrüm)
• Azerbaijani: palindrom
• Basque: palindromo
• Belarusian: паліндро́м m (palindróm)
• Bengali: প্যালিনড্রোম (pêlinḍrōm)
• Bikol Central: palindromo
• Bulgarian: палиндром m (palindrom)
• Catalan: palíndrom m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 回文 (wui⁴ man⁴)

  Mandarin: 回文 (zh) (huíwén)

• Czech: palindrom (cs) m
• Danish: palindrom n
• Dutch: palindroom (nl) n
• Esperanto: palindromo
• Faroese: palindrom
• Finnish: palindromi (fi)
• French: palindrome (fr) m
• Galician: palíndromo (gl) m
• Georgian: პალინდრომი (ṗalindromi)
• German: Palindrom (de) n
• Greek: καρκινική γραφή f (karkinikí grafí)
• Hebrew: פלינדרום (he) m (pálindrom)
• Hindi: चित्रकाव्य (hi) (citrakāvya)
• Hungarian: palindrom (hu)
• Icelandic: samhverfa (is) f
• Ido: palindromo (io)
• Indonesian: palindrom (id)
• Interlingua: palindromo
• Irish: palandróm m
• Italian: palindromo (it) m
• Japanese: 回文 (ja) (かいぶん, kaibun)
• Kannada: ಗತಪ್ರತ್ಯಾಗತ (kn) (gatapratyāgata)
• Korean: 회문(回文) (hoemun)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: palîndrom (ku)

• Kyrgyz: палиндром (ky) (palindrom)
• Latin: palindromus
• Latvian: palindroms m
• Limburgish: palindroom
• Lithuanian: palindromas m
• Luxembourgish: Palindrom n
• Malayalam: അനുലോമവിലോമപദം (ml) (anulōmavilōmapadaṁ)
• Maori: kupu tuataurite, kupu kōaro rite (word), tau kōaro rite (number)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: palindrom (no) n

  Nynorsk: palindrom n

• Occitan: palindròm m
• Persian: پالیندروم (pâlindrom)
• Polish: palindrom (pl) m
• Portuguese: palíndromo (pt) m, capicua (pt) f
• Romanian: palindrom (ro) n
• Russian: палиндро́м (ru) m (palindróm)
• Sanskrit: अनुलोमप्रतिलोमपदम् (anulomapratilomapadam)
• Scottish Gaelic: paileandrom m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: палѝндро̄м m

  Roman: palìndrōm (sh) m

• Slovak: palindróm m
• Slovene: palindrom (sl) m
• Spanish: palíndromo (es) m (word or phrase), capicúa (es) f (number)
• Swedish: palindrom (sv) c
• Tagalog: salitambaligtarin, baligtarinsalita
• Tajik: палиндром (palindrom)
• Tamil: மாலைமாற்று (ta) (mālaimāṟṟu)
• Telugu: పత్రికాపదకోశం (patrikāpadakōśaṁ), అనులోమవిలోమ శ్లోకము (anulōmavilōma ślōkamu)
• Thai: พาลินโดรม (paa lin-doh rom)
• Turkish: palindrom (tr)
• Ukrainian: паліндром m (palindrom)
• Võro: palindruum
• Welsh: palindrom m
• West Frisian: palindroom n
• Zazaki: palîndrom

Anagrams

• emordnilap, pramindole

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek παλίνδρομος (palíndromos).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pa.lɛ̃.dʁom/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

palindrome m (plural palindromes)

1. palindrome

Further reading

• “palindrome”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Adjective

palindrome f

1. feminine plural of palindromo

Anagrams

• imperlando