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I'm thinking of getting a SONOS sound system and have realised that it's an example of a special class of word. It's a palindrome, it's a rotational ambigram and it is also a word that is the same upside down.

Any palindrome that uses, exclusively, H I N O S X Z (also some versions of lower case f and l) will share this characteristic .

Is there a special name for this ?

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    it's only the same upside-down if rotated, rather than reflected.
    – Phil M Jones
    Jan 28, 2015 at 14:39
  • Thanks @PhilMJones. I've corrected my question. An additional term may be needed !
    – Dan
    Jan 28, 2015 at 15:27
  • possible duplicate: Word for number or word that reads the same when inverted or mirrored
    – ermanen
    Jan 28, 2015 at 15:53
  • Not answered there clearly. Would it be a dihedral or a tetradic ambigram !?
    – Dan
    Jan 29, 2015 at 13:38
  • It was answered quite clearly in the linked question. It is a rotational ambigram. Your question was is there a special name and the answer is that it is a rotational ambigram. If you want something more descriptive you'll need to append some extra words on there to modify it to fit your needs. Language, yo.
    – Dave Magner
    Jan 29, 2015 at 21:38

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Perhaps "palindromic rotational ambigram"? I just stuck "palindromic" on the front of "rotational ambigram".

I don't think there's a term with fewer than three words to describe what you want.

(I'm not sure the distinction from "rotational ambigram" is necessary, as most rotational ambigrams seem to be palindromic--I'm guessing designing those is just easier--but it's your language. More concise is okay, and more words are okay.)

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    People clever with fonts seem to be able to make all kinds of rotational ambigrams that are not palindromic - see, for example, the illustrations on the right column, for ambigram and chumps - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambigram. But you are probably right that I should be happy with palindromic rotational ambigrams !
    – Dan
    Feb 7, 2015 at 21:06
  • (looking through old posts I see this should have had my tick - sorry for the delay!)
    – Dan
    Nov 6, 2015 at 10:43

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