English

Noun

semordnilap ‎(plural semordnilaps)

1. 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.
   • 1965, Dmitri Borgmann, Language on Vacation: An Olio of Orthological Oddities, page 42:

     [he] then goes on to credit us with giving him some of the best examples of semordnilaps.

   • 2000, Gail Smith, Celebrate the Piano, page 18:

     This song is a semordnilap. It can be played forward and then sounds different when it is played backwards.

   • 2008, Alex Pogel & David Ozonoff, “Contingency Structures and Concept Analysis”, in Medina & Obietkov, editors, Formal Concept Analysis, page 318:

     ACE is an acronym for Analysis of Concepts for Epidemiologists, and a semordnilap for ECA, Epidemiological Concept Analysis.

Synonyms

• (word, phrase, or sentence that forms another when its letters are reversed): anadrome, antigram, half-palindrome, heteropalindrome, reversgram, reversible anagram, semi-palindrome, word reversal

Translations

Anagrams

• palindromes