What are the longest symmetrical words that can be flipped like a mirror?

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The discussion revolves around finding words that can be flipped horizontally and still form other words, emphasizing that they do not need to be palindromic. Participants share examples like "boob" becoming "dood" and explore the concept of vertical symmetry in letters. They discuss the use of uppercase and lowercase letters, with a focus on letters that maintain symmetry, such as A, H, and Y, and consider the flexibility of using mixed case for more options. The goal is to create messages for a glass-walled meeting room that can be read from both sides, encouraging creativity in wordplay. The conversation also touches on the potential for humorous interpretations and the cleverness of letter transpositions, while acknowledging the limitations of the English alphabet in this context. Overall, the thread highlights a playful exploration of language and symmetry.
DaveC426913
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I want to find words that are can be flipped horizontally (like in a mirror) and still make other words.

They do NOT have to be the same words backward and forward. In Wiki, under vertically symmetical words they have ma'am and toot, but thewse words are the same words when reversed. Thids is not necessary.

eg. boob flipped horizontally is dood (not really a word but wut ev...).

What's the biggest word or words you can find?

They could be caps, or they could be lower case.
 
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Cool game. My Mom used to sign off her letters with "remember..MOM is just WOW upside down".
 
CHOICE in the mirror is CHOICE. (turn it upside down first)
 
OAT <--> TAO (for a non-palindromic attempt, and playing by the rules)

I SIN; WOT AM I? <--> I'M A TOWN, IS I? (begging some poetic freedom with the N, the spacing and the punc's)

PS: First time I've intentionally used an apostrophe in a plural noun not indicating a possessive.
 
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A h i m o t u v w x
 
A ToYoTA

I tried to make it all caps but kept coming back as "A toyota".
 
Jimmy Snyder said:
CHOICE in the mirror is CHOICE. (turn it upside down first)

Letters have to be symmetrical about the vertical axis (I see now there was some ambiguity in what I meant.).


Why am I doing this?

We have glass walls in our new office meeting room. They do double duty as whiteboards that you can write on with special markers. This results in writing that can be read from both inside AND outside the meeting room.

I want to write some message on the wall that can be read from both sides. It doesn't have to make sense, and certainly doesn't have to be the same from both sides. In fact, the more different it is, the more obvious to the reader that I'm deliberately playing with the space.

And now you can see why I can't use dood...
 
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G037H3 said:
A h i m o t u v w x

Presumably, you meant those to be uppercase, (otherwise a and h don't qualify)

If so, you forgot Y. And S=Z can qualify (since it's hand-written).


Alternately, and I like this better:

i l m n o t u v w x y
b/d p/q s/z

Since there seems to be a paucity of good words coming from either l/c or u/c, I may have to allow mixed case in order to give us enough room to maneuver.

Thus our full alphabet becomes:

A H Y
i l m n o t u v w x
b/d p/q s/z
Anyone see any more two-letter transpositions?
 
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Since it's handwritten, E / 3 could be added to the list.
 
  • #10
mood and YAW are two obvious ones.
 
  • #11
DaveC426913 said:
Presumably, you meant those to be uppercase, (otherwise a and h don't qualify)

If so, you forgot Y. And S=Z can qualify (since it's hand-written).


Alternately, and I like this better:

i l m n o t u v w x y
b/d p/q s/z

Since there seems to be a paucity of good words coming from either l/c or u/c, I may have to allow mixed case in order to give us enough room to maneuver.

Thus our full alphabet becomes:

A H Y
i l m n o t u v w x
b/d p/q s/z
Anyone see any more two-letter transpositions?

All caps automatically does that. And I don't consider Y, because I don't write it like that, and the S/Z thing is silly. >_> You're cheating. :)
 
  • #12
pA i mUll A miAmi -> i mAim All UmiAq

TUnA nUT
TOO HOT TO HOOT

Same spacing both ways:
MAY A MUd MOM bUM A YAM
 
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  • #13
G037H3 said:
All caps automatically does that. And I don't consider Y, because I don't write it like that,
Capital Y is, when correctly written, vertically symmetrical.

G037H3 said:
and the S/Z thing is silly. >_> You're cheating. :)
Silly? Cheating?? That's the most clever part! At least, p/q and b/d are. I suppose the s/z thing could be considered a bit of a reach.
 
  • #14
Borg said:
pA i mUll A miAmi -> i mAim All UmiAq

TUnA nUT
TOO HOT TO HOOT

Same spacing both ways:
MAY A MUd MOM bUM A YAM

Just so we're clear: there is absolutely no requirement - or even desire - for palindromity.
 
  • #15
DaveC426913 said:
Just so we're clear: there is absolutely no requirement - or even desire - for palindromity.
The first one wasn't meant to be a palindrome. Just showing what it reads in both directions.
 
  • #16
I just noticed there's not too many anti symmetric letters in our alphabet. N is anti symmetrc in one dimension, Z in the other, along with S. Tha seems to be about it.
 
  • #17
Pythagorean said:
I just noticed there's not too many anti symmetric letters in our alphabet. N is anti symmetrc in one dimension, Z in the other, along with S. Tha seems to be about it.

I expected a Nazi joke after you said N and Z were anti-symmetric. It would've been sweet if you could have pulled that off.
 
  • #18
leroyjenkens said:
I expected a Nazi joke after you said N and Z were anti-symmetric. It would've been sweet if you could have pulled that off.

:frown:
 
  • #19
leroyjenkens said:
I expected a Nazi joke after you said N and Z were anti-symmetric. It would've been sweet if you could have pulled that off.

:smile: Good one, leroy. Nazis are the pinnacle of anti-symmetric commentary. :biggrin:
 

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