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Ep221: Palindromes, Anagrams and More! · Kidcast Daily

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  Spin the wheel, let's take a ride.
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  Sports and science bursting from inside a world of wonder.
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  Open wide. Come on kids, let's amplify kid
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  cats. Daily starts yours.
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  Welcome to Kick Ass Daily, where we bring news, trivia, fun
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  facts, and more just for curious kids like you.
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  Today, we're going on a word adventure.
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  Get ready to discover some of the coolest tricks you can do
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  with words and letters. We'll learn about palindromes,
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  anagrams, ambigrams, pangrams, and a few other fun types of
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  word play. These are not just fun to say,
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  they're fun to make and spot in your everyday life.
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  Let's get started. First up, palindromes.
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  A palindrome is a word, phrase, or even a number that reads the
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  same forward and backward. The letters appear in the same
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  order whether you start from the beginning or the end.
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  For example, the word level is a palindrome.
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  If you spell it backward, it's still LEVL.
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  Another easy one is Mom. MOM reads the same both ways.
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  Even numbers can be palindromes like 121 or 1331.
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  Palindromes aren't just for single words.
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  Some sentences are palindromes too, as long as you ignore
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  spaces and punctuation. Here's a famous one.
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  Was it a car or a cat I saw? If you write it out and remove
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  the spaces, it reads the same forward and backward.
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  Did you know that the longest single word palindrome in
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  English is detar traded? It's a scientific word used in
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  chemistry. Another cool palindrome is
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  racecar. Next time you see a word or
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  number, try reading it backward. You might spot a palindrome in
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  your own name. Names like Anna, Eve, and Otto
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  are palindromes. If you have a palindrome name,
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  you can impress your friends with this fun fact.
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  Now let's talk about anagrams. An anagram is a word or phrase
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  formed by rearranging the letters of another word or
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  phrase to make a new word using all the original letters exactly
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  once. For example, if you take the
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  word listen, you can mix up the letters and get the word silent.
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  Both use the same 6 letters. Another simple anagram is dusty
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  and study. Anagrams can be a fun way to
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  play with words, especially in Word games and puzzles.
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  You can try making your own anagrams using your name or
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  favorite words. For example, if your name is
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  Mary, you can rearrange the letters to get army.
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  Some longer phrases can be turned into funny or interesting
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  anagrams. For example, the classroom can
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  be rearranged to spell schoolmaster.
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  Both are related to school, which makes it even more fun.
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  Did you know that some people use anagrams to create secret
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  codes? By rearranging the letters, you
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  can send hidden messages to your friends.
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  Try writing a note to a friend using anagrams and see if they
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  can figure it out. Let's move on to ambigrams.
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  An ambigram is a word or design that looks the same from
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  different directions. Usually when you rotate a 180°,
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  it still reads as the same word. Sometimes ambigrams are used in
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  logos, art, or puzzles. They're not as common as
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  palindromes or anagrams, but they're very cool to see.
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  One simple ambigram is the word swims.
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  If you write it in capital letters and turn the paper
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  upside down, it still reads as swims.
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  Some artists can design special fonts so that words like noon or
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  Oxo also look the same when flipped.
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  Ambigrams can also be made for names.
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  Some people ask artists to design their names as ambigrams
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  for tattoos, T-shirts, or artwork.
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  Try writing your name and flipping the paper upside down.
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  Does it look the same? If not, you can get creative and
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  design your own ambigram with special letters.
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  Now let's talk about pangrams. A pangram is a sentence that
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  uses every letter of the alphabet at least once.
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  Pangrams are often used to test keyboards, fonts, or handwriting
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  because they show every letter in one sentence.
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  The most famous pangram in English is the quick brown fox
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  jumps over the lazy dog. If you look closely, you'll see
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  every letter from A-Z is in that sentence.
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  Pangrams can be short or long. The challenge is to make the
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  sentence as short as possible while still using every letter.
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  Here's another pangram pack, my box with five dozen liquor jugs.
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  It's a little silly, but it uses all 26 letters.
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  Some people like to invent their own pangrams as a word puzzle.
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  Can you come up with a sentence that uses every letter of the
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  alphabet? It's harder than it sounds.
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  Did you know that pangrams are used by people who make computer
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  fonts? By typing a pangram, they can
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  see how every letter looks in a new font.
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  Some teachers also use pangrams to help students practice their
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  handwriting. Let's review what we've learned
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  so far. Palindromes are words or numbers
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  that read the same forward and backward, like level or 121.
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  Anagrams are words made by rearranging the letters of
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  another word, such as listen and silent.
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  Ambigrams are words or designs that look the same when flipped
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  or rotated, like swims. Pangrams are sentences that use
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  every letter of the alphabet, like the quick brown fox jumps
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  over the lazy dog. But wait, there are a few more
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  fun word tricks you might enjoy. Have you heard of isograms?
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  An isogram is a word or phrase where no letter appears more
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  than once. For example, the word lumberjack
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  is an isogram because each letter is only used once.
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  Another example is dialogues. Isograms can be hard to find,
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  especially as the words get longer.
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  Some people try to come up with the longest isogram they can.
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  There's also something called a heterogram.
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  It's almost the same as an isogram.
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  In a heterogram, each letter appears only once, but it's
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  usually used for phrases or sentences.
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  For example, big dwarf only jumps is a heterogram phrase
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  since no letter repeats. Now let's talk about lipograms.
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  A lipogram is a kind of writing where the author avoids using a
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  certain letter on purpose. For example, you can try to
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  write a story or a paragraph without using the letter E,
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  which is the most common letter in English.
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  It's a fun challenge. Here's a short lipogram.
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  A small dog ran fast and hit. Notice that there is no E in
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  that sentence. Some authors have written entire
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  books as lipograms. Did you know that Gatsby is a
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  famous novel written by Ernest Vincent Wright and it doesn't
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  use the letter E at all? It has over 50,000 words.
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  So that's a pretty big challenge.
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  Let's try a quick quiz to see how much you remember.
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  I'll say a word or sentence and you guess what kind of word
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  trick it is. First, deified.
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  If you guessed palindrome, you're right.
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  Next, Cinema and Iceman, What are these?
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  They're anagrams. Now pack my box with five dozen
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  liquor jugs. That's a pangram.
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  How about lumberjack? That's an isogram.
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  Now here's a fun fact. The word alphabet comes from the
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  1st 2 letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta.
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  People have been playing with words and letters for thousands
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  of years in many different languages.
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  In fact, the world's oldest known palindrome is in Latin and
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  reads Seder, A repo tenet opera rodas.
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  It's over 2000 years old. Word play isn't just for fun.
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  It helps your brain get better at spelling, reading, and
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  solving puzzles. Many word games like Scrabble,
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  Boggle, or Crosswords use these tricks.
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  Next time you play a word game, try looking for palindromes or
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  making anagrams out of your tiles.
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  If you want to practice at home, here are some ideas.
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  Try to find as many palindromes as you can in your favorite book
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  or magazine. Make a list of anagrams for your
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  friends names. Write your own pangram sentence
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  and see if you can use all 26 letters.
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  Create an ambigram by designing a cool word that looks the same
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  upside down. Or challenge yourself to write a
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  story without using a certain letter, like a lipogram.
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  Before we finish, here's one last Did you know moment?
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  Did you know that in some languages, people play with
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  words in different ways? For example, in Japanese, there
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  are palindromes called kaiban. In French, the word resasser is
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  a palindrome, just like race car in English.
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  Word play is something people enjoy all over the world.
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  Let's do a quick recap. Today we learned about
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  palindromes, which read the same forward and backward.
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  We explored anagrams, where you rearrange letters to make new
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  words. We learned about ambigrams,
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  words that look the same when turned upside down.
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  We talked about pan grams, sentences that use every letter
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  in the alphabet. We also discovered isograms and
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  heterograms, where no letter repeats, and lipograms, where a
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  certain letter is left out on purpose.
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  We found out that people have been playing with words for
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  thousands of years in many different languages.
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  That's all for today's Kick Cast daily word adventure.
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  Thanks for listening and keep being curious.
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  Who knows, maybe you'll invent a brand new kind of word trick one
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  day. See you next time.
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  Grab your breakfast. Feeling fine?
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  Adventures waiting? Don't be late, Today's the day
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  we celebrate. Kick Cast Daily starts your day.