noitats

Noitats is a term used in wordplay and puzzle communities to describe a word that yields another valid word when its letters are reversed. The name Noitats itself is the reverse of the English word station, making it a canonical example of such reversals. In linguistic and puzzle contexts, words like station and noitats are cited as instances of semordnilaps, a term used to describe word pairs that form valid words when one is written backward.

The concept is primarily of interest in recreational linguistics rather than formal lexicography. Noitats can appear in clue-writing for cryptic crosswords, where solvers may be asked to identify a word whose reverse is another English word, or in word-lists that demonstrate reversal patterns. It is also used in puzzles and games designed to teach or illustrate the idea of reversible word forms.

Limitations: Not all reversals yield valid words; the class is limited to pairs in which both directions are legitimate words. As a curiosity, noitats is noted for its symmetrical relationship to station, highlighting how simple letter reversals can create mirrored lexical pairs.

See also: semordnilap; reversing word; wordplay; palindromes (though not palindromic).