palindromes

Noun

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.
   • The only thing exciting about 2002 is that it's a palindrome.2017, Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird, spoken by Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson
2. (broadly) A poetic form in which the sequence of words reads the same in either direction.
3. (broadly) A sequence of items that follows the same pattern both forwards and backwards.
   • 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.1998, Dolores Pesce, Hearing the Motet, page 93
4. A stretch of DNA in which the sequence of nucleotides on one strand are in the reverse order to that of the complementary strand