Entertainment / Literature / Palindrome: A word, sentence, or verse that reads the same way backward or foreward. Certain words in English naturally function as palindromes: for instance, civic, rotor, race car, radar, level and so on. However, when individuals seek to combine several words at once, the result becomes a sort of perverse art. Here are some longer English examples culled from J. A. Cuddon's Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory: * Madam, I'm Adam. * Sir, I'm Iris. * Able was I ere I saw Elba. (attributed apocryphally to Napoleon, who was exiled on Elba, though in historical fact he apparently spoke no English!) * A man, a plan, a canal: Panama! * Sex at noon taxes. * 'Lewd did I live & evil I did dwel.' (anonymous 18th-century gravestone) * Straw? No, too stupid a fad, I put soot on warts! * 'Deliver desserts,' demanded Nemesis--emended, named, stressed, reviled. * T. Eliot, top bard, notes putrid tang emanating, is sad.
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