semordnilap
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semordnilap
- /səˈmɔːdnɪlæp/ UK
- /səˈmɔːɹdnɪlæp/ US
Where it comes from
A reverse spelling of palindromes. Semordnilap, according to author Ove Wilhelm Michelsen in his book Words at Play (1997), was probably first used by recreational linguist Dmitri Borgmann, cited by Martin Gardner in the revised edition of Charles Carroll Bombaugh's Oddities and Curiosities of Words and Literature (1961) http://books.google.com/books?id=f4kNAQAAIAAJ&q=borgmann. The underlying concept (but not the term) is found at least as far back as Lewis Carroll's Sylvie and Bruno (1889). Semordnilap is also autological; that is, it is a self-describing word, as the word semordnilap is itself a semordnilap.
noun semordnilaps
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A word, phrase, or sentence that has the property of forming another word, phrase, or sentence when its letters are reversed. A semordnilap differs from a palindrome in that the word or phrase resulting from the reversal is different from the original word or phrase.
[He] then goes on to credit us with giving him some of the best examples of semordnilaps.
Similar: anadrome, half-palindrome, heteropalindrome, reversgram, reversible anagram, semi-palindrome, word reversal, levidrome, emordnilap, antigram, in which the meaning is necessarily negated but letters may be freely rearranged
Translations
Every language
noun word, phrase, or sentence that has the property of forming another word, phrase, or sentence when its letters are reversed
| Français | anacyclique |
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Talk about this word "semordnilap." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/semordnilap. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026. semordnilap. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 7, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/semordnilap "semordnilap." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 7, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/semordnilap.Cite this
@misc{semordnilap_2026,
title = {semordnilap},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/semordnilap},
urldate = {2026-11-07}
}
