palindrome

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”); 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

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 (pẏalinôḍrom) 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) (anulōmavilōmapadaṃ) 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) m 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

• pramindole

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French

Etymology

From Ancient Greek παλίνδρομος (palíndromos).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pa.lɛ̃.dʁɔm/

• 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.

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Italian

Adjective

palindrome f

1. feminine plural of palindromo

Anagrams

• imperlando