This week’s theme
Playing with words

This week’s words
rebus
calligram
ambigram
pangram
acrostic

---

A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(AM-bi-gram)

MEANING:

noun: A word or phrase written in a manner that it reads the same (sometimes, a different word or phrase) when oriented in a different way, for example, when reflected or rotated.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin ambi- (both) + -gram (something written). Earliest documented use: 1985.

USAGE:

“Come In & Go Away Doormat. This fun and clever graphic uses an ambigram to greet and dismiss your visiting guests: ‘come in’ on arrival ‘go away’ when leaving.”
Wipe Your Feet in Style This Winter; The Kent and Sussex Courier (Tunbridge Wells, UK); Oct 4, 2013.

“Toryn Green already had his first Fuel album commemorated with an ambigram tattoo -- in one direction it reads ‘angel’ and in the other direction it reads ‘devil’.”
Sarah Henning; Driven to Succeed; Anchorage Daily News (Alaska); Dec 16, 2007.

NOTES:

My name lends itself to an easy ambigram. See a week of ambigrams in A.Word.A.Day, created by master ambigrammer John Langdon. There are many websites that can generate ambigrams for you. What ambigrams can you come up with? Share original and (not computer-generated) ambigrams at words@wordsmith.org.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: