Palindrome

 WORD OF THE DAY

palindrome / noun / PAL-un-drohm

Definition
: a word, verse, or sentence (such as "Able was I ere I saw Elba") or a number (such as 1881) that reads the same backward or forward

Examples
"The original members—Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Anni, whose first names form the palindrome ABBA—were a perpetual presence on the radio airwaves during their 1972 to '82 heyday, and one of the most commercially successful acts in the history of popular music."
— Ray Schweibert, The Atlantic City (New Jersey) Weekly, 16 Nov. 2021

And Jones seemed to have an early lead on the Cam-Mac palindrome scoreboard.
— BostonGlobe.com, 12 Aug. 2021

Did You Know?
Palindromic wordplay is nothing new. Palindromes have been around since at least the days of ancient Greece, and our name for them comes from two Greek words, palin, meaning "back" or "again," and dramein, meaning "to run."
Nowadays, we can all appreciate a clever palindrome (such as "Drab as a fool, aloof as a bard" or "A man, a plan, a canal: Panama"), or even a simple one like "race car," but in the past palindromes were more than just smart wordplay.
Until well into the 19th century some folks thought palindromes were actually magical, and they carved them on walls or amulets to protect people or property from harm.