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What is the longest English palindromic word?

Question #18565. Asked by Shari.
Last updated Jun 15 2021.

Related Trivia Topics: English  
Gnomon
Answer has 6 votes
Gnomon
23 year member
1331 replies

Answer has 6 votes.
The longest English palindrome in the dictionary is TATTARRATTAT (12 letters), a word made up by James Joyce to indicate the sound of someone knocking on the door.

The word DETARTRATED (11 letters) is also considered by some to be a word. It is a chemical term. Another long one is KINNIKINNIK (11 letters), a type of tobacco substitute used by North American Indians.

Response last updated by Terry on Sep 09 2016.
Feb 16 2001, 9:13 AM
Jack Flash
Answer has 6 votes
Jack Flash

Answer has 6 votes.
I can offer two possible contenders, both of nine letters. They are: evitative and redivider

There is also a contrived chemical term, detartrated, which has 11 letters. I note that you specify English words.

Apr 25 2002, 12:37 PM
Son of The Household Cavalry
Answer has 8 votes
Son of The Household Cavalry

Answer has 8 votes.
The longest English palindromic word is redivider (9 letters).

The longest palindromic word in any language is saippuakivikauppias (19 letters), Finnish for lye dealer, from saippuakivi, lye, and kauppias, dealer. Similarly: saippuakauppias (15 letters), soap dealer, and saippurakaruppias (17 letters), soap salesman.

Kinnikinnick, the name of a plant and also a dried leaf and bark mixture smoked by Cree Indians, is not a palindrome, but it is sometimes misspelled as a palindrome in two different ways: kinnikinnik (11 letters) and kinnik-kinnik (12 letters). Each half of the last palindrome is itself a palindrome.

The shortest palindromic word, not counting one-letter words, is aa, which is a Hawaiian word for a kind of lava.

Response last updated by gtho4 on Aug 20 2016.
Apr 25 2002, 3:40 PM
McG
Answer has 7 votes
McG

Answer has 7 votes.
TATTARRATTAT is the longest palindrome in the OED2, which calls it a nonce word. The OED2 shows a single use in 1922 by James Joyce in 'Ulysses': "I knew his tattarrattat at the door."

link https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=mtaymdy5ma==8s7q

Response last updated by satguru on Jun 13 2021.
Apr 26 2002, 7:31 AM
skysmom65
Answer has 5 votes
skysmom65
19 year member
1504 replies

Answer has 5 votes.
The longest known palindrome – a word that reads the same backwards or forwards – in any language is the 19-letter word saippuakivikauppias

(According to Guinness Book of Records)

Response last updated by Terry on Sep 09 2016.
Sep 19 2006, 1:54 PM
arctic_wolves
Answer has 7 votes
arctic_wolves

Answer has 7 votes.
Saippuakauppias, Finnish for "soap vendor", is claimed to be the world's longest palindromic word in everyday use. A meaningful derivative from it is saippuakalasalakauppias (soapfish bootlegger). An even longer effort is saippuakuppinippukauppias (soapdish batch seller).

Koortsmeetsysteemstrook, is probably the longest palindrome in Dutch, and Kuulilennutunneliluuk (trajectory tunnel hatch) is the longest palindrome in Estonian.

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palindrome

A 17,259 word palindrome (or palindromic sentence)is found on this link:

link http://www.norvig.com/pal2txt.html



Response last updated by gtho4 on Sep 11 2016.
Sep 19 2006, 4:36 PM
ashokv_Sharma
Answer has 5 votes
ashokv_Sharma

Answer has 5 votes.
Check this for a 63,647 letter palindrome:
a 15,139 Word Palindrome (or Palindromic Sentence)

link http://www.norvig.com/pal1txt.html



Response last updated by gtho4 on Sep 11 2016.
Sep 20 2006, 12:23 PM
avatar
zbeckabee star
Answer has 8 votes
zbeckabee star
Moderator
18 year member
11752 replies avatar

Answer has 8 votes.
Multi-Word Palindrome:

Jerry Berns has his candidate longest palindrome, consisting of 31,358 words or 119,180 letters.

link https://drcrazie.blogspot.com/2016/02/




Response last updated by gtho4 on Jun 15 2021.
Nov 17 2007, 9:00 PM
salami_swami star
Answer has 17 votes
Currently Best Answer
salami_swami star
18 year member
139 replies

Answer has 17 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
Single Word Palindrome

This link is quite interesting.

In English, it mentions tattarrattat as the longest, but Guinness says it is detartrated (the preterite and past participle of detartrate).

Rotavator is also a long palindromatic word.

Of course, using other languages, words like Kuulilennuteetunneliluuk, saippuakuppinippukauppias, and Koortsmeetsysteemstrook are considered the longest palindromatic words. Keeping in English, tattarrattat wins, followed by detartrated. Here is a link.

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palindrome#Long_palindromes

Response last updated by Terry on Sep 09 2016.
Feb 26 2009, 5:03 PM
davejacobs
Answer has 5 votes
davejacobs
22 year member
956 replies

Answer has 5 votes.
link http://www.kmjn.org/notes/word_unit_palindromes.html
When the words in a sentence are taken as the units for making the palindrome, rather than the individual letters. An example is:
"Mind your own business: own your mind"

Mar 04 2013, 1:45 PM
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