semordnilap
UK/səˈmɔːdnɪlæp/US/səˈmɔːɹdnɪlæp/
semordnilap noun: 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.
Noun
semordnilap (plural semordnilaps)
- 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.1965, Dmitri Borgmann, Language on Vacation: An Olio of Orthological Oddities, page 42
- This song is a semordnilap. It can be played forward and then sounds different when it is played backwards.2000, Gail Smith, Celebrate the Piano, page 18
- Synonyms:
- anadrome, half-palindrome, heteropalindrome, reversgram, reversible anagram, semi-palindrome, word reversal, levidrome, emordnilap, antigram
Synonyms of semordnilap
- anadrome
- half-palindrome
- heteropalindrome
- reversgram
- reversible anagram
- semi-palindrome
- word reversal
- levidrome
- emordnilap
- antigram
1 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- in which the meaning is necessarily negated but letters may be freely rearranged
Forms of semordnilap
| plural | semordnilaps |
|---|
Origin of semordnilap
A reverse spelling of palindromes. "Semordnilap", according to author O. V. Michaelsen in his 1997 book Words at Play, 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.
Questions about semordnilap
- What does semordnilap mean?
- Semordnilap means 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.
- What part of speech is semordnilap?
- Semordnilap is a noun.
- How do you pronounce semordnilap?
- Semordnilap is pronounced /səˈmɔːdnɪlæp/ (UK).
- What is the plural of semordnilap?
- The plural of semordnilap is semordnilaps.
Words near semordnilap in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: semordnilap (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “semordnilap.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/semordnilap. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.