Palindromes

A palindrome is a word (or phrase) that reads the same forwards and backwards — LEVEL, RADAR, KAYAK, ROTOR. The word comes from Greek palin (‘again’) + dromos (‘running’), literally ‘running back again’. In English there are surprisingly few single-word palindromes — well under 100 in standard dictionaries — but many more once you allow phrases (A MAN A PLAN A CANAL PANAMA).

This page collects every single-word palindrome from the ENABLE dictionary, plus notes on famous phrase palindromes, their history, and how they turn up in word games.

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• Most single-word palindromes are 3–7 letters long.
• Odd-length palindromes have a single ‘pivot’ letter in the middle (LEVEL: L-E-V-E-L).
• Even-length palindromes mirror around the gap (NOON: N-O-O-N).
• The longest common single-word palindrome in English is REDIVIDER (9 letters).
• Palindromic phrases and sentences are a whole discipline — see the Panama, Napoleon and Adam palindromes.

• 3-letter palindromes: BOB, DAD, DID, EVE, EYE, GAG, MOM, NUN, POP, TOT
• 4-letter: NOON, PEEP, POOP, SEES, TOOT
• 5-letter: LEVEL, RADAR, ROTOR, CIVIC, KAYAK, MADAM, REFER
• 7-letter: ROTATOR, REPAPER, DEIFIED
• 9-letter: REDIVIDER

• Wordplay puzzles — palindromes are a classic constraint.
• Linguistic humour — ‘Sator squares’ (Latin word grids) date back to Roman times.
• Scrabble — playing a palindrome across a triple-triple lane is a mild flex.
• Programming interviews — palindrome detection is a canonical string problem.