What Is the Longest Palindrome?
How long can a palindrome get? In English, single-word palindromes top out at around a dozen letters; other languages and constructed sentences go further. Here are the longest.
Longest palindromes
| Word / Phrase | Cleaned | Length | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| malayalam | malayalam | 9 | Both a palindrome and the language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala. |
| redivider | redivider | 9 | One who divides again. |
| rotavator | rotavator | 9 | A rotary tilling machine (trade name). |
| aibohphobia | aibohphobia | 11 | Joke coinage meaning fear of palindromes; structured as a palindrome itself. |
| kinnikinnik | kinnikinnik | 11 | A Native American smoking mixture made from dried bark and herbs. |
| detartrated | detartrated | 11 | Having had tartrates removed; awarded "longest palindromic word in everyday use" by Guinness World Records. |
| tattarrattat | tattarrattat | 12 | Coined by James Joyce in Ulysses (1922) for a knock at the door; longest palindromic entry in the Oxford English Dictionary. |
| saippuakivikauppias | saippuakivikauppias | 19 | Finnish for soapstone vendor; widely cited as the longest palindromic word in everyday use in any language. |
The longest palindrome in English
The Oxford English Dictionary's longest palindromic entry is tattarrattat (12 letters), coined by James Joyce in Ulysses (1922) for a knock at the door. Guinness World Records gives the "everyday use" title to detartrated (11 letters).
The longest in any language
The Finnish saippuakivikauppias — a soapstone vendor — is widely cited as the longest palindromic word in everyday use in any language, at 19 letters.