Posts Tagged ‘palindromes’

77 Palindromes

November 24th, 2009

Similar to my last post, I wanted to know how  many words in the English dictionary are palindromes. There are 78 in this words list, and none of them are very long.

Ada
Ala
Ana
Anna
Ara
Ava
Bib
Bob
Eve
Gog
Hannah
Laval
MGM
Malayalam
Nan
Ono
Otto
Salas
Tet
Tevet
Tut
aha
bib
bob
boob
civic
dad
deed
deified
did
dud
eke
ere
eve
ewe
eye
gag
gig
hah
huh
kayak
kook
level
ma’am
madam
minim
mom
mum
non
noon
nun
oho
pap
peep
pep
pip
poop
pop
pup
radar
redder
refer
rotor
sagas
sees
seres
sexes
shahs
sis
solos
stats
tat
tenet
tit
toot
tot
wow

The perl script that found them

map {print; print “\n”} grep {chomp; (lc($_) eq reverse lc($_)) && /../} <>

Palindromes

July 21st, 2008

I stumbled upon some standup comedy by Demetri Martin (former “expert”/”correspondent” on The Daily Show). Evidently he’s done some spectacular things with palindromes and anagrams that would earn him a lot of respect from the geek community.

One thing that really caught my eye was his 224 word palindrome:

“Dammit I’m Mad” by Demetri Martin

Dammit I’m mad.
Evil is a deed as I live.
God, am I reviled? I rise, my bed on a sun, I melt.
To be not one man emanating is sad. I piss.
Alas, it is so late. Who stops to help?
Man, it is hot. I’m in it. I tell.
I am not a devil. I level “Mad Dog”.
Ah, say burning is, as a deified gulp,
In my halo of a mired rum tin.
I erase many men. Oh, to be man, a sin.
Is evil in a clam? In a trap?
No. It is open. On it I was stuck.
Rats peed on hope. Elsewhere dips a web.
Be still if I fill its ebb.
Ew, a spider… eh?
We sleep. Oh no!
Deep, stark cuts saw it in one position.
Part animal, can I live? Sin is a name.
Both, one… my names are in it.
Murder? I’m a fool.
A hymn I plug, deified as a sign in ruby ash,
A Goddam level I lived at.
On mail let it in. I’m it.
Oh, sit in ample hot spots. Oh wet!
A loss it is alas (sip). I’d assign it a name.
Name not one bottle minus an ode by me:
“Sir, I deliver. I’m a dog”
Evil is a deed as I live.

This wikipedia article on palindromes is quite an interesting read if you’re bored.