Palindromes, Double Letters and Other Word Patterns
Word games are not only about scoring. Some of the most fun comes from spotting patterns: words that read the same backwards, words that stack up double letters, or words that contain every vowel. We searched the full ENABLE list for each of them, so every number below comes from the real dictionary.
Palindromes: words that read the same both ways
A palindrome is a word that is spelled the same forwards and backwards. The list contains 101 palindromes of three letters or more. The longest have seven letters:
7 letters (7 words)
DEIFIED HALALAH REIFIER REPAPER REVIVER ROTATOR SEMEMES
6 letters (7 words)
DENNED HALLAH MARRAM PULLUP REDDER SELLES TERRET
5 letters (24 words)
ALULA CIVIC DEKED DELED DEWED KAIAK KAYAK LEVEL MADAM MINIM RADAR REFER ROTOR SAGAS SEMES SERES SEXES SHAHS SOLOS STATS STETS SULUS TENET TOROT
4 letters (13 words)
ABBA ANNA BOOB DEED KEEK KOOK NAAN NOON OTTO PEEP POOP SEES TOOT
3 letters (50 words)
ABA AGA AHA ALA AMA ANA AVA AWA BIB BOB BUB DAD DID DUD EKE EME ERE EVE EWE EYE GAG GIG HAH HEH HUH MEM MIM MOM MUM NAN NUN OHO OXO PAP PEP PIP POP PUP SIS SOS TAT TET TIT TOT TUT ULU VAV WAW WOW YAY
Palindromes are easy to spot on a rack because you only need to find half the word. Look for a pair of matching letters and build outward from the middle.
Words with three or more double letters
134 words in the list contain at least three pairs of doubled letters, such as the double O, double K and double E in BOOKKEEPER. Here are the ones of ten letters or fewer:
AARRGHH ADDRESSEE ADDRESSEES ALLOTTEE ALLOTTEES APPELLEE APPELLEES ARROWWOOD ARROWWOODS BARRENNESS BITTERROOT BOOKKEEPER COMMITTEE COMMITTEES COMMONNESS GREENNESS HEELLESS HIDDENNESS KEELLESS KEENNESS KEENNESSES ROTTENNESS SODDENNESS SUDDENNESS SULLENNESS TOOLLESS WHEELLESS WOODENNESS WOOLLINESS YELLOWWOOD
Most of the longer ones (74 of the 104 with more than ten letters) end in -ness or -nesses, as in AGGRESSIVENESS, which contributes a double S by itself.
Words that contain all five vowels
There are 2462 words in the list that include A, E, I, O and U at least once. The shortest have 7 letters:
EULOGIA MIAOUED SEQUOIA
Isograms: no letter used twice
An isogram is a word in which no letter repeats. The longest isograms in the list have 15 letters:
DERMATOGLYPHICS UNCOPYRIGHTABLE
Isograms are handy in a word game because they never need a repeated tile: a rack of seven different letters can often make one.
Try these patterns yourself
- Type a palindrome you know into WordJumbler and check that it appears in the results.
- Use the Starts with and Ends with filters to explore words that begin and end with the same letter.
- Add a blank tile (
?) to a palindrome and see which new words appear.