An ambigram is a word or design that retains meaning when viewed from a different direction or perspective. Specifically, a rotational ambigram reads the same when viewed upside down, while a mirror or bilateral ambigram is one that reads the same backward and forward.
In its simplest form, an ambigram can be created directly from the available letters of a word without having to change or reposition them. A palindrome might be suitable to design an ambigram. It is a sequence of letters that reads the same backward and forward such as “OTTO”.
NOON is a simple example of an ambigram—it still reads as NOON even when viewed upside down. See?! Another example is the word dollop. Such ambigrams are said to have rotational symmetry, meaning they yield the same sequence when viewed (or rotated) upside down.
Palindromes are words, phrases or sentences that can be read forwards or backwards, (“No x in Nixon” or “Madam I'm Adam” being two famous examples). Ambigrams are a kind of visual pun, where the shapes of the letters can be interpreted in two or more ways.
Symbiotograms — These ambigrams depict two words whose meanings are in complementary opposition — one viewed from each of two vantage points. They can be either rotational or bi-lateral. Figure/Ground Relationships — The negative spaces within the letterforms also read as letters.
Ambigrams are sorts of visual palindromes. Some words turn upside down, others are symmetrical through a mirror. Natural ambigram palindromes exist, like the words "wow", "malayalam" (Dravidian language), or the biotechnology company Noxxon that possesses a palindromic name associated to a rotational ambigram logo.
Specifically, a rotational ambigram reads the same when viewed upside down, while a mirror or bilateral ambigram is one that reads the same backward and forward. Another type of word ambigram is one that takes on a new message when rotated. Some ambigram designs have made their way into popular culture.
Some of the best-known palindromes include “Madam, I'm Adam,” “A man, a plan, a canal—Panama,” and “Able was I ere I saw Elba” (which some incorrectly attribute to Napoleon Bonaparte).
How common are palindrome dates? Aziz S. Inan, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Portland, calculated that in the month-day-year format, palindrome days tend to occur only in the first few centuries of each millennium (1000 years).
The last will be on 29 December 2192, written as 29/12/2192.
Today's date is 22 February 2022 and when written as 22/02/2022 it not only forms a palindrome but it is also an ambigram. This is because it can be read the same upside down. There are only four ambigram numbers - 0, 1, 2 and 8 - these appear the same when viewed upside down.
write the name right-side up and upside down with each downstroke. getting one column. usually "W" is the hardest letter in ambigram design.
am·bi·gram ˈam-bə-ˌgram. plural ambigrams. : something (such as an image of a written word or phrase) that is intended or able to be oriented in either of two ways for viewing or reading. When flipped upside down, it can create the same image, or may form a new image entirely.
Twosday has no real special meaning or significance, other than the date is palindromic. This means it can be read the same backwards as forwards. It is also an ambigram, in that on a calculator it can be read upside down in exactly the same way.
The Longest Palindromic Word In English
The Oxford English Dictionary's longest is the 12-letter “tattarrattat,” which was coined by author James Joyce as an onomatopoeic term for the sound of someone knocking on a door.
The Finnish word for “soapstone vendor” is supposedly the longest palindrome in everyday use: saippuakivikauppias. (What do you mean you don't have a trusted soapstone vendor?)
The longest known palindromic word is saippuakivikauppias (19 letters), which is Finnish for a dealer in lye (caustic soda). A palindrome is a word or phrase where the letters read backwards, give the same word or phrase, eg: the phrase 'Madam I'm Adam', with the reply 'Eve'.
A palindrome is a word, phrase or sentence that reads the same backwards and forwards, so it differs from an anagram because the anagram requires the shuffling of the letters.
Aibohphobia is the (unofficial) fear of palindromes, which are words that read the same front and back and, you guessed it, the word itself is a palindrome. There's also dodecaphobia, which is the (again, unofficial) fear of the number 12 - can you see how many letters make up that one?
21st Century Palindrome Dates
January 2, 2010 (01-02-2010) November 2, 2011 (11-02-2011) February 2, 2020 (02-02-2020) December 2, 2021 (12-02-2021)
The word 'swims' reads as 'swims' even when it is turned upside down. This property is referred to as an ambigram, meaning a word or other symbolic representation whose elements retain the meaning when viewed from different directions or perspectives.
The real Professor (John) Langdon is a 67-year-old American who in the nineteen seventies co-invented the "ambigram", a word or sequence of words that conceal some kind of symmetry. The classic ambigram is a word that looks exactly the same when read upside down, like the Sisters Forever in the illustration above.