See semordnilap on Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "A reverse spelling of palindromes. \"Semordnilap\", according to author O. V. Michaelsen in his 1997 book Words at Play, was probably first used by recreational linguist Dmitri Borgmann, cited by Martin Gardner in the revised edition of Charles Carroll Bombaugh's Oddities and Curiosities of Words and Literature (1961) http://books.google.com/books?id=f4kNAQAAIAAJ&q=borgmann. The underlying concept (but not the term) is found at least as far back as Lewis Carroll's Sylvie and Bruno (1889). Semordnilap is also autological; that is, it is a self-describing word, as the word semordnilap is itself a semordnilap.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "semordnilaps",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "semordnilap (plural semordnilaps)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Entries with translation boxes",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with French translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1965, Dmitri Borgmann, Language on Vacation: An Olio of Orthological Oddities, page 42:",
"text": "[He] then goes on to credit us with giving him some of the best examples of semordnilaps.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2000, Gail Smith, Celebrate the Piano, page 18:",
"text": "This song is a semordnilap. It can be played forward and then sounds different when it is played backwards.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2008, Alex Pogel, David Ozonoff, “Contingency Structures and Concept Analysis”, in Medina & Obietkov, editors, Formal Concept Analysis, page 318:",
"text": "ACE is an acronym for Analysis of Concepts for Epidemiologists, and a semordnilap for ECA, Epidemiological Concept Analysis.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"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."
],
"id": "en-semordnilap-en-noun-Y~dRDJkL",
"links": [
[
"palindrome",
"palindrome"
]
],
"synonyms": [
{
"sense": "word, phrase, or sentence that forms another when its letters are reversed",
"word": "anadrome"
},
{
"sense": "word, phrase, or sentence that forms another when its letters are reversed",
"word": "half-palindrome"
},
{
"sense": "word, phrase, or sentence that forms another when its letters are reversed",
"word": "heteropalindrome"
},
{
"sense": "word, phrase, or sentence that forms another when its letters are reversed",
"word": "reversgram"
},
{
"sense": "word, phrase, or sentence that forms another when its letters are reversed",
"word": "reversible anagram"
},
{
"sense": "word, phrase, or sentence that forms another when its letters are reversed",
"word": "semi-palindrome"
},
{
"sense": "word, phrase, or sentence that forms another when its letters are reversed",
"word": "word reversal"
},
{
"sense": "word, phrase, or sentence that forms another when its letters are reversed",
"word": "levidrome"
},
{
"sense": "word, phrase, or sentence that forms another when its letters are reversed",
"word": "emordnilap"
},
{
"word": "antigram"
},
{
"word": "in which the meaning is necessarily negated but letters may be freely rearranged"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "word, phrase, or sentence that has the property of forming another word, phrase, or sentence when its letters are reversed",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "anacyclique"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/səˈmɔːdnɪlæp/",
"tags": [
"UK"
]
},
{
"audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-semordnilap.wav",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/81/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-semordnilap.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-semordnilap.wav.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/81/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-semordnilap.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-semordnilap.wav.ogg"
},
{
"ipa": "/səˈmɔːɹdnɪlæp/",
"tags": [
"US"
]
}
],
"word": "semordnilap"
}
{
"etymology_text": "A reverse spelling of palindromes. \"Semordnilap\", according to author O. V. Michaelsen in his 1997 book Words at Play, was probably first used by recreational linguist Dmitri Borgmann, cited by Martin Gardner in the revised edition of Charles Carroll Bombaugh's Oddities and Curiosities of Words and Literature (1961) http://books.google.com/books?id=f4kNAQAAIAAJ&q=borgmann. The underlying concept (but not the term) is found at least as far back as Lewis Carroll's Sylvie and Bruno (1889). Semordnilap is also autological; that is, it is a self-describing word, as the word semordnilap is itself a semordnilap.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "semordnilaps",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "semordnilap (plural semordnilaps)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English autological terms",
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English nouns",
"English terms with quotations",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Terms with French translations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1965, Dmitri Borgmann, Language on Vacation: An Olio of Orthological Oddities, page 42:",
"text": "[He] then goes on to credit us with giving him some of the best examples of semordnilaps.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2000, Gail Smith, Celebrate the Piano, page 18:",
"text": "This song is a semordnilap. It can be played forward and then sounds different when it is played backwards.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2008, Alex Pogel, David Ozonoff, “Contingency Structures and Concept Analysis”, in Medina & Obietkov, editors, Formal Concept Analysis, page 318:",
"text": "ACE is an acronym for Analysis of Concepts for Epidemiologists, and a semordnilap for ECA, Epidemiological Concept Analysis.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"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."
],
"links": [
[
"palindrome",
"palindrome"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/səˈmɔːdnɪlæp/",
"tags": [
"UK"
]
},
{
"audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-semordnilap.wav",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/81/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-semordnilap.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-semordnilap.wav.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/81/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-semordnilap.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-semordnilap.wav.ogg"
},
{
"ipa": "/səˈmɔːɹdnɪlæp/",
"tags": [
"US"
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"sense": "word, phrase, or sentence that forms another when its letters are reversed",
"word": "anadrome"
},
{
"sense": "word, phrase, or sentence that forms another when its letters are reversed",
"word": "half-palindrome"
},
{
"sense": "word, phrase, or sentence that forms another when its letters are reversed",
"word": "heteropalindrome"
},
{
"sense": "word, phrase, or sentence that forms another when its letters are reversed",
"word": "reversgram"
},
{
"sense": "word, phrase, or sentence that forms another when its letters are reversed",
"word": "reversible anagram"
},
{
"sense": "word, phrase, or sentence that forms another when its letters are reversed",
"word": "semi-palindrome"
},
{
"sense": "word, phrase, or sentence that forms another when its letters are reversed",
"word": "word reversal"
},
{
"sense": "word, phrase, or sentence that forms another when its letters are reversed",
"word": "levidrome"
},
{
"sense": "word, phrase, or sentence that forms another when its letters are reversed",
"word": "emordnilap"
},
{
"word": "antigram"
},
{
"word": "in which the meaning is necessarily negated but letters may be freely rearranged"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "word, phrase, or sentence that has the property of forming another word, phrase, or sentence when its letters are reversed",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "anacyclique"
}
],
"word": "semordnilap"
}
Download raw JSONL data for semordnilap meaning in All languages combined (4.0kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-21 using wiktextract (ce0be54 and f2e72e5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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