What does palindrome mean?
Word: Palindrome
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Palindrome means a word, phrase or number that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as level or 1221.
Word origin: First recorded in English in the 1620s; the playwright Ben Jonson is often credited with it.
How do you spell palindrome?
Syllables: pal - in - drome
Tricky part: The ending is drome, with an e at the end, as in aerodrome; students write palindrom.
Watch out for: palindrom, pallindrome, palindroam
Memory tip: Palindrome has one l, as palace and palette do; double it and you have written something no dictionary lists.
Palindrome in a sentence
Example 1: Our maths teacher challenged us to find a palindrome among the bus numbers.
Example 2: Tanvi wrote her name backwards to see if it was a palindrome, but it was not.
Example 3: The date 02-02-2020 was a palindrome, reading the same in both directions.
Fun Fact
The longest one-word palindrome in the Oxford English Dictionary is often said to be tattarrattat, a word James Joyce made up for a knock on a door.
Practise the CREST Way
Spellacadabra
Choose the correct letters to make a meaningful word:
pal__drome
a) an
b) en
c) un
d) in
Show answer
d) in. The middle sounds like the in of pin, and it is spelt the same way.
Word Champ
Read the statements and choose the correct option:
1. The name of the Kerala language, Malayalam, is a palindrome. 2. 'Never odd or even' is a palindrome if you ignore the spaces. 3. 'Rotator' is a palindrome.
a) only 2 and 3 are true
b) only 1 and 2 are true
c) only 3 is true
d) all three are true
Show answer
d) all three are true. Read each one backwards, ignoring the spaces, and you get exactly the same letters, so every statement holds.
Back to the Roots
Choose the correct option:
Palindrome comes from ___ and it means ___. 1. Latin 2. French 3. Greek 4. Persian 5. a mirror of words 6. running back again 7. a circle of letters 8. read in silence
a) 3/6
b) 2/7
c) 1/5
d) 4/8
Show answer
a) 3/6. The Greek palindromos meant running back again, which is just what the letters of a palindrome do.
Sound Check
Pick the word that does not rhyme with palindrome:
a) welcome
b) syndrome
c) chrome
d) aerodrome
Show answer
a) welcome. Welcome ends in a short, weak um sound; the other three end like home.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these numbers is a palindrome?
a) 12312
b) 12231
c) 12321
d) 13221
Show answer
c) 12321
2. An anagram rearranges letters to make a new word. A palindrome, instead, ___.
a) uses each letter only once
b) has as many vowels as consonants
c) begins and ends with a vowel
d) reads the same in both directions
Show answer
d) reads the same in both directions
