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The number I am thinking of is 80808. This is a palindrome. However, it is more than a palindrome, because it can be flipped or mirrored and will still read the same way.

Is there a word for this?

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3 Answers

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There's a term for words written in such a form that they can be read from another viewpoint, direction or orientation. They are called ambigrams. See the relevant Wikipedia article.

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I think the word you may want is dihedral. The only numbers that can appear in such a construction are 0, 1, 2, 5, and 8, and the property primarily applies to numbers displayed on a calculator or using LED's.

There are also dihedral letters, namely the capitals H, I, O, and X.

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What about M, T, U, V, W and Y (depending on font of course)? ;) – njr101 Apr 17 '12 at 12:17
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@njr They're not same upside-down. – Andrew Leach Apr 17 '12 at 12:27
Ahhh, I didn't realise what he meant by "flipped". Although you could still have M and W ;) – njr101 Apr 18 '12 at 7:13
up vote 1 down vote

I believe the term you are looking for is: mirror-image ambigram

More on Wikipedia...

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looking at the example of Wiki image on the site, this will only work mirrored, but not flipped. – Codemwnci Apr 17 '12 at 12:34
Yes, but it would be very easy to construct an ambigram that is both a mirror-image ambigram (either horizontally or vertically) and a rotational ambigram. – njr101 Apr 18 '12 at 7:16

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