⚠️This fact has been debunked
The claim that this is the 'only' palindrome sentence in English is demonstrably false. There are hundreds of palindrome sentences, and the myth-busting is the interesting story here.
"Was it a car or a cat I saw?" is one of the most famous English palindrome sentences, but it's far from the only one. There are countless others, including "A man, a plan, a canal: Panama" and even a computer-generated palindrome over 21,000 words long.
The Palindrome Myth: Why "Was It a Car" Isn't Alone
"Was it a car or a cat I saw?" has achieved internet fame as a supposed linguistic unicorn—the only English sentence that reads the same backward as forward. Strip away the spaces and punctuation, and you get WASITACARORACATISAW. Impressive? Sure. Unique? Not even close.
This claim is spectacularly wrong, and the truth is far more interesting.
Palindrome Paradise
English is actually packed with palindrome sentences. Some are whimsical: "A man, a plan, a canal: Panama." Others are surreal: "Mr. Owl ate my metal worm." Then there's the existential: "Do geese see God?" The list goes on—"Never odd or even," "No lemon, no melon," "Eva, can I see bees in a cave?"
Each one follows the same rule: ignore spaces and punctuation, and the letters form a mirror image. The "car or cat" sentence isn't special—it's just well-marketed.
Going Nuclear
If you want to talk about palindrome extremes, forget the 19-letter amateur hour. In 2002, computer scientist Peter Norvig created a palindrome over 21,000 words long. It's computer-generated gibberish, but it technically counts. Not satisfied? There's a 40,000-word palindrome floating around the internet.
For actual readable content, two palindromic novels have been published in English:
- "Satire: Veritas" by David Stephens (1980) — 58,795 letters
- "Dr Awkward & Olson in Oslo" by Lawrence Levine (1986) — 31,954 words
Comedian Demetri Martin even wrote a 224-word palindrome poem titled "Dammit I'm Mad." Read it backward, and it's still "Dammit I'm Mad."
Why the Myth Persists
So why does "Was it a car or a cat I saw?" get all the credit? Probably because it's easy to remember and sounds like something you'd actually say—albeit in a very specific roadside existential crisis. It's conversational, it flows, and it's just confusing enough to make people pause and check.
But claiming it's the only one? That's like saying "racecar" is the only palindrome word. English speakers have been crafting palindromes for over a century. "Madam, I'm Adam" dates back to 1861. "A man, a plan, a canal – Panama" appeared in 1948. We've been obsessed with these linguistic tricks for generations.
The Takeaway
"Was it a car or a cat I saw?" is a great palindrome. It's clever, it's memorable, and it works. But it's one entry in a massive catalog of backward-reading sentences. The next time someone tells you it's the only one, hit them with "Do geese see God?" and watch the gears turn.