#FunFactFriday

You never quite know where it's going
Friday, 11 September 2026

Most people are familiar with the concept of palindromes - a word or phrase that spells out the same letters whether written forwards or backwards. ‘Racecar’, ‘RADAR’, or even “A man, a plan, a canal, Panama” fit the definition.

There is a cousin of the palindrome, known as the semordnilap. This is where you take a word, reverse the letters and end up with a different word, e.g. ‘stressed’ backwards is ‘desserts’. ‘drawer’ / ‘reward’ is another, or ‘strap’ / ‘parts’.

The word is of course, the word ‘palindromes’ reversed to form ‘semordnilap’, and as such is also autological, as in it describes what it is.