(5) Ambigram

(This blog is For Students of IMS Indore, my Past Students, family, friends and colleagues.)

By Pankaj Khanna, Faculty Maths , IMS Indore

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(This article is Posted on 10/9/2022.)

(5) Ambigrams

People of my age are rightly interested in heart, angiography, angioplasty and angiograms; but not much interested in Ambigrams. 

An Ambigram is an image of a written word or phrase that is intended or able to be oriented in either of two ways for viewing or reading. When flipped upside down, it can create the same image, or may form a new image entirely. Basically Ambigrams are calligraphic designs.

When in school in late seventies, I used to play with my name and surname. As we had no distractions like mobile, TV or Computers, we were always busy discovering various things. And this is one of the several ways  I used to write my name in  my books and copies:

If you turn the image upside-down, you will find the same word. Back then, the word Ambigram was not existing. They used to call such figures as vertical palindromes, designatures, upside-down words, inversions etc.

The term ambigram was coined in 1983 by Douglas Hofstadter an American scholar and the Pullitzer Prize winning author.

Ambigram was added to the  Oxford English Dictionary  in March 2011, and the Merriam Webster dictionary included it in September 2020.

A symmetrical ambigram can be called "homogram" (contraction of "homo-ambigram") when it remains unchanged after reflection, and "heterogram" when it transforms. The above figure  is an example of Homogram.

Now with the help of Computer and special Ambigram fonts, many Ambigrams can be created easily. One example from the net is copied below:

Prefix Ambi means Around, About, Both. There are a plethora of words having this root. A few words with the same root are listed below:

Amble: Walk leasurely about.

Ambidexter/ Ambidextrous: One who uses both hands with skills. Also  Ambi-handed.

Ambiparous: having both leaves and flowers.

Ambivert : A person whose nature combines those of the introvert and extrovert.

Amburbial : relating to a circuit of a city. Encompassing or surrounding a city.

Perambulator: one who travels around, baby carriage.

Ambisinister: Clumsy with both hands.

Ambipedal: Able to use both feet with equal ease. Footballers Neymar and Christiano Ronaldo are  ambipedal footballers. In the past Zidane and Socretes have been ambipedal.

There are many more words starting with the root Ambi. For example:  Ambition,ambitious, ambiguity, ambiguous,  ambit, ambient, ambilateral (bilateral), Ambivalence, Ambivalent, ambitendency, , ambulance, ambipedal, ambisexuality, ambilingual, ambilineally, ambidirectional etc.

There are still many words left! Find out:)

Pankaj Khanna

Indore (9424810575)

B.E. (Mech.) SGSITS Indore 1983 Batch

-Worked with HPCL from 1984 to 2007 as Mgr.

-Faculty Maths/DI-LR - T.I.M.E. Indore 2007-20

-Faculty Maths/DI-LR -IMS Indore 2022 Onwards.

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List of  Articles of 'Epeolatry': 

1    Epeolatry by a Philomath.  

2    Amicable Numbers

3    Retrouvaille

4    Aeipathy

5    Ambigram

6    Gaslighting

7    Netiquettes

8    Helios

9    Sol

10  Nostalgia and Solastalgia

11  Lalochezia

12  Farrago

13  Muliebrity

14  Rodomontade

15. Kakistocracy

16. Breviloquance

You may also wish to  see my blog : Love thy Numbers. It may be helpful for CAT Preparation in Quant Section to the Serious Students who are willing to accept additional inputs.

(और अगर आप 'भविष्य की भाषा हिंदी' में वर्तमान में कुछ अच्छा, हल्का-फुल्का हास, परिहास और इतिहास  पढ़ना चाहते हैं तो आप तवा संगीत के आलेख भी पढ़ सकते हैं। ये हिंदी वाला ब्लॉग CAT में कुछ काम नहीं आएगा पर मजा आ सकता है:)