Updated · Built and checked by the PlinzoTools team, formulas tested against published sources
Check whether a word or phrase reads the same forwards and backwards.
Palindrome ✓
A palindrome reads the same forwards and backwards (ignoring spaces, punctuation, and letter case). This tool checks any word or phrase instantly.
Enter a word or phrase. The result appears instantly.
Behind the instant result are three small steps. First the text is converted to lowercase. Second, accent marks are stripped (é becomes e) and every character that is not a letter in any alphabet or a digit is removed, which takes out spaces, punctuation, apostrophes, hyphens and symbols. Third, the remaining characters are compared with the same characters in reverse order. If they match, and at least one character is left, the result reads Palindrome. An empty input, or one that contains nothing but punctuation, is reported as Not a Palindrome because there is nothing to compare.
Palindrome = cleaned text equals its own reverse (and is not empty)
Take the classic phrase "Was it a car or a cat I saw?". Lowercasing gives "was it a car or a cat i saw?". Removing spaces and the question mark leaves "wasitacaroracatisaw", which has 19 characters. Reading it backwards gives "wasitacaroracatisaw" again, so it is a palindrome. The middle character, the "o" in "or", is the pivot: in an odd-length palindrome it pairs with itself, so it never causes a mismatch.
Now try "Never odd or even". Cleaned, it becomes "neveroddoreven" (14 characters). Reversed, it is "nevero" followed by "ddoreven" flipped, which yields "neveroddoreven" as well. Because the length is even, every character pairs with a different partner, and all seven pairs match.
A failing example: "Palindrome" cleans to "palindrome", which reverses to "emordnilap". The first letter p does not match the last letter e, so it fails immediately.
This tool tests character by character. A sentence such as "You can cage a swallow, can't you, but you can't swallow a cage, can you?" is a palindrome at the word level, where the words read the same in reverse, but it is not one at the letter level, so this checker will say it is not. If you are working on word-level puzzles, this is the most common reason for an unexpected result.
If you are building a phrase from scratch, work from the middle outward: choose a pivot letter or pair, then add matching letters symmetrically on each side, and test as you go. The checker gives immediate feedback each time you add a pair.
No -- the check normalizes to lowercase and strips punctuation/spaces first, so "Racecar" and "race car!" both check correctly.
Yes. One character reads the same forwards and backwards, so the tool reports it as a palindrome. Empty input is the exception and is reported as not a palindrome.
Yes. Accent marks are ignored and letters from other alphabets are compared as they are. Only spaces, punctuation and symbols are removed before comparing.
No, it compares individual characters. A sentence whose words repeat in reverse order is not necessarily a letter palindrome, so it may be reported as not one.
Yes, digits are kept. Typing a date with the separators removed or included gives the same result, because slashes and dashes are stripped, for example a value like 12/02/2021 is judged on the digits 12022021.