Palindromes

A palindrome reads the same in both directions. The obvious examples such as LEVEL, RADAR, KAYAK and CIVIC are joined on this page by every other word in our dictionary that has the property, including a fair number that most people have never noticed are palindromes, such as REFER, SAGAS and DEIFIED. The list is sorted by length so the longest ones sit at the bottom. Palindromes are mostly a curiosity for tile games, although the symmetric spelling can make them easier to spot on a rack, but they are a staple of crosswords and word puzzles, where clues often hint at the reversal. Two-letter palindromes are excluded because every doubled letter would qualify; the list starts at three. If you want to check a particular pattern, the word finder will accept the same letters in mirrored positions.

How to use this page

Browse the list for study, or search it with your rack to find plays. When the list is long, the page shows the first few hundred words and a button loads the rest.

Tips

If you know some letters of a word and their positions, a pattern search finds it faster than scanning a list. Open the word finder, type the word with question marks for the unknown letters, and every match appears immediately. You can combine a pattern with the starts-with and ends-with filters to narrow the set further. This works for crosswords, for daily five-letter puzzles and for any tile game where a board word gives you two or three fixed letters.

Questions

Can I search this list with my own letters?

Yes. Type your letters into the search box at the top of the page, using a question mark for a blank, and the tool will show only the palindromes you can actually spell from that rack, with scores.

Are all of these words valid in word games?

They are all in the ENABLE list, which most word-game helpers use, but each game publishes its own dictionary. Check any unfamiliar word against the rules of the game you are playing before you rely on it.