Is it a palindrome?
What do you call a word, if it becomes another word when you read it backwards.
For example: rat
The reason I am asking this question is because a friend of mine sent me this impressive youtube video a few days ago, calling it a palindrome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA
My questions is, would you call it a palindrome, if not, what would you appropriately call this style of writing?
Many thanks :) just found another silly example: but
can someone think of a longer one? :) yet another one: tide

Question

Is it a palindrome?
What do you call a word, if it becomes another word when you read it backwards. 
For example: rat  
The reason I am asking this question is because a friend of mine sent me this impressive youtube video a few days ago, calling it a palindrome. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA
My questions is, would you call it a palindrome, if not, what would you appropriately call this style of writing?  
Many thanks :) just found another silly example: but
can someone think of a longer one? :) yet another one: tide

Answer

"A man, a plan, a canal - Panama" - letters occur in the same order read forward and back 
Others: 
"Sex at noon taxes" 
"Satan oscillate my metallic sonata" (with thanks from the rock group Soundgarden)
By the way: If a word forms a different meaningful word spelled backwards, this is NOT a palindrom - it is called a "Semordnilap", which, if you notice is "palindromes" spelled backward (no joke - look it up).

Answer

Hi...
A palindrome is a word or sentence that is the same spelled forward or backward. For example, take a look at the following sentence: "Madam, I'm Adam". If you omit the punctuation, you can see that the letters spell the same thing forward and backward. There are lots of words that are palindromes including: dad, deified, kayak, mom, repaper, reviver, rotator, and radar.

Answer

I haven't heard of a word describing this.  There should be one now! :D  However, there are occasional examples where whole sentences are spoken backwards to make a new meaning (viz. the movie Amadeus).

But it's not a palindrome because palindromes are symmetrical.  Want to make up a name?

Answer

A word that reads the same way forwards and backwards (such as "racecar") is called a palindrome. There's no word for non-palidrome words.

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