What are the word records for rotation or reflection symmetry?

[ Editor: from the Taxonomy of Wordplay, www.questrel.com, retrieved 28 Oct 2026. Classes (common, uncommon, hyphenated words, phrases), scores, ties (-t) and the source codes in brackets are explained in language/english/word.records.introduction. ]

Sources: [L27,1-39,4-92,144,11-177,237,14-221]

a.  spelled with vertical symmetry letters = AHIMOTUVWXY, longest [12-109]
        common words: automata, thataway, mahimahi (8-t)
        uncommon words: homotaxia, thymomata, myomotomy (9-t)
        hyphenated word: mouth-to-mouth (12)
b.  spelled with horizontal symmetry letters = BCDEHIKOX, longest [11-237,12-216]
        common word: checkbook (9)
        uncommon word: coccidiocide (12)
        hyphenated word: hoochie-coochie (14)
c.  spelled with full-symmetry letters = HIOX, longest
        common words: hi, ho, oh, ox (2-t)
        uncommon word: ohio (4)
        hyphenated word: hoo-oo (5)
d.  catoptron (word which remains the same when it is reflected in a mirror), longest
        i.  vertical catoptron, longest
                common word: toot (4)
                uncommon words: aitia, imami, aiaia (5-t)
                hyphenated word: tat-tat-tat (9)
e.  upside-down word (word that remains the same when it is turned upside down) [14-221]
        i. longest lowercase
                common words: passed, dollop, palled, sasses (6-t)
                uncommon word: sooloos (7)
        ii.  longest uppercase
                common word: swims (5)
f.  upside-down word pair
        i. longest lowercase
                common words: assed & passe (5-t)
                common words: alles & salle (5-t)
                common words: dooms & swoop (5-t)
                uncommon words: salades & sapeles (7-t)
                uncommon words: pappous & snodded (7-t)
        ii.  longest uppercase
                common words: nos & son (3)
                uncommon words: nonis & sinon (5-t)
                uncommon words: nimis & siwin (5-t)

-- Taxonomy of Wordplay, www.questrel.com

[ Editor: upside-down anagrams and letter pairs, 1994-1995. ]

"hoowould" can be anagramed into "hlodouow."

But only if you turn the whole thing "umop apisdn."

(Upside down, guy!  Upside down!)

-- Eric Berlin <eric@panix.com>

----------

rgsjez@pipeline.com (Richard G. Smith) writes:
>In alt.anagrams mv002c@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Mark D. Vanderbilt)
>said:
>>Mom
>>Wow
>
>That reminds me of the time I realized that "A Toyota" was a
>palindrome.  I was driving along and saw "ATOYOT" in my rear-view.
>
> It's especially neat when the letters themselves are symmetrical.

And that reminds me of something I saw in a .signature.  Wish I could
credit the author.  It said something like:

        This message is umop apisdn

a=e  b=q  d=p  e=a  l=l  m=w  n=u  o=o  p=d  q=b  s=s  u=n  w=m  x=x
z=z  H=H

I'll bet some interesting anagrams could be spun from these letters
that are also words upside down.  Something better than 'dupe' and 'a
pud'.  Or even odder, something that says the same thing backwards and
forwards upside down.  Something better than 'aw, me!' or <of course>
'wow, mom!'

There remains, however, sensitive dependence on the font type.  a=e
might be stretching it, for example.  One might also try j=r or y=h.

-- fractimo <fractima@netcom.com>