Meanings
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 422 more examples
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 18ACE is an acronym for Analysis of Concepts for Epidemiologists, and a semordnilap for ECA, Epidemiological Concept Analysis.
2008, Alex Pogel, David Ozonoff, “Contingency Structures and Concept Analysis”, in Medina & Obietkov, editors, Formal Concept Analysis, page 318Synonyms: anadrome, half-palindrome, heteropalindrome, reversgram, reversible anagram, semi-palindrome, word reversal, levidrome
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA 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.
Origin
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.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
French anacyclique
- anacycliqueword, phrase, or sentence that has the property of forming another word, phrase, or sentence when its letters are reversed
Polish ananim
- ananimword, phrase, or sentence that has the property of forming another word, phrase, or sentence when its letters are reversed
Cite this entry
semordnilap. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/semordnilap
“semordnilap.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/semordnilap. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “semordnilap,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/semordnilap.
Source: semordnilap on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.