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A reverse dictionary is a dictionary alphabetized by the reversal of each entry:

kcots (stock)

kcotseid (diestock)

kcotser (restock)

kcotsevil (livestock)

Before computers, reverse dictionaries were tedious to produce. The first computer-produced was Stahl and Scavnicky's A Reverse Dictionary of the Spanish Language, in 1974.^[1] The first computer-produced reverse dictionary for a single text was Wisbey, R., Vollständige Verskonkordanz zur Wiener Genesis. Mit einem rückläufigen Wörterbuch zum Formenbestand, Berlin, E. Schmidt, 1967.

Definition

In a reverse word dictionary, the entries are alphabetized by the last letter first, then next to last, and so on.^[1]^[2] In them, words with the same suffix appear together. This can be useful for linguists and poets looking for words ending with a particular suffix, or by an epigrapher or forensics specialist examining a damaged text (e.g. a stone inscription, or a burned document) that had only the final portion of a word. Reverse dictionaries of this type have been published for most major alphabetical languages.

Applications

Applications of reverse word dictionaries include:

Simple rhyming dictionaries, to the extent that spelling predicts pronunciation.
Finding words with a given suffix (i.e., meaningful ending), like -ment.
Finding words with the same ending as a given word, even if the sequence is not meaningful.
Setting or solving word puzzles, such as -gry or the earlier -dous puzzle (find words ending in some way), or crossword puzzles.

Construction

Reverse word dictionaries are straightforward to construct, by simply sorting based on reversed words. This was labor-intensive and tedious before computers, but is now straightforward. By the same token, reverse dictionaries have become less important since online word lists can be searched dynamically.

Examples

English

Online

closedtags.com

Physical

Normal and Reverse Word List. Compiled under the direction of A. F. Brown at the University of Pennsylvania, under a contract with the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AF 49 [638]-1042) Department of Linguistics, Philadelphia, 1963.
Lehnert, Martin, Rückläufiges Wörterbuch der englischen Gegenwartssprache, VEB Verlag Enzyklopädie, Leipzig, 1971.
McGovern, Una, Chambers back-words for crosswords: a reverse-sorted list, Chambers, Edinburgh, 2002
Muthmann, Gustav, Reverse English dictionary: based on phonological and morphological principles, Mouton de Gruyter, New York, 1999.
Walker, John, The rhyming dictionary of the English language: in which the whole language is arranged according to its terminations, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1983.

Other Languages

Akkadian

Hecker, Karl, Rückläufiges Wörterbuch des Akkadischen, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1990.

Albanian

Snoj, Marko, Rückläufiges Wörterbuch der albanischen Sprache, Buske Verlag, Hamburg, 1994.

Czech

Těšitelová, Marie; Petr, Jan; Králík, Jan. Retrográdní slovník současné češtiny, Praha, Academia, 1986.

Dutch

Nieuwborg, E.R., Retrograde woordenboek van de Nederlandse taal, Kluwer Technische Boeken, Deventer, 1978.

Estonian

Hinderling, Robert, Rückläufiges estnisches Wörterbuch = Eesti keele pöördsõnaraamat (Sõnalõpuline leksikon) = Reverse dictionary of the Estonian language, Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaftliche Fakultät der Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuth, 1979.

Finnish

Tuomi, Tuomo (ed.), Suomen kielen käänteissanakirja – Reverse Dictionary of Modern Standard Finnish, Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden seura, 1980. ISBN 951-717-002-5.

French

Juilland, A., Dictionnaire inverse de la langue française, Mouton, The Hague, 1965.

German

Bruckner, T., Rückläufige Wortliste zum heutigen Deutsch, Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, 1986.
Mater, Erich, Rückläufiges Wörterbuch der deutschen Gegenwartssprache CD-ROM, Straelener Ms.-Verlag, Straelen, 2001 ISBN 3-89107-047-0
Muthmann, Gustav, Rückläufiges deutsches Wörterbuch: Handbuch der Wortausgänge im Deutschen, mit Beachtung der Wort- und Lautstruktur, Niemeyer, Tübingen, 2001.

Cypriot-Greek

Συμεωνίδης, Χ. Π., Αντίστροφο λεξικό της κυπριακής διαλέκτου. Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της κυπριακής διαλέκτου. Πρώτο μέρος. Τα δυσπρόσιτα της κυπριακής διαλέκτου, 2017

Greek, modern

Αναστασιάδη-Συμεωνίδη, Α. Αντίστροφο Λεξικό της Νέας Ελληνικής. Θεσσαλονίκη: Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών, 2002.
Κουρμούλης Γ. Αντίστροφον λεξικόν της Νέας Ελληνικής. Δεύτερη Έκδοση. Αθήνα: Παπαδήμας, 2002.
Τσιλογιάννης, Παύλος, Αντίστροφο λεξικό της νέας - αρχαίας Ελληνικής γλώσσας : με διάγραμμα ιστορίας της Ελληνικής γλώσσας και χρήσιμους πίνακες, 2000 (modern and ancient Greek)
Μπαλαφούτης, Ευάγγελος, Αντίστροφο λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής γλώσσας, 1996
Reverse dictionary in modern Greek, Βικιλεξικό (Greek Wiktionary)

Greek, ancient

P. Kretchmer, E. Locker. Rückläufiges Wörterbuch der griechischen Sprache. Göttingen, 1944. 2nd ed. 1963
C.D. Buck, W. Petersen. A Reverse Index of Greek Nouns and Adjectives. Chicago 1948 (?). Reprinted 1975
F. Dornseiff, B. Hansen. Rückläufiges Wörterbuch der griechischen Eigennamen / Reverse-Lexicon of Greek Proper-Names. Berlin, 1957; Chicago 1978
Τσιλογιάννης, Παύλος, Αντίστροφο λεξικό της νέας - αρχαίας Ελληνικής γλώσσας : με διάγραμμα ιστορίας της Ελληνικής γλώσσας και χρήσιμους πίνακες, 2000 (ancient and modern Greek)
ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ: Dictionaries for ancient Greek and Latin, University of Chicago. (in every page / for every lemma, there is an index which can be either forward or reverse)
Reverse dictionary in ancient Greek, Βικιλεξικό (Greek Wiktionary)

Hebrew

Kuhn, Karl Georg, Rückläufiges hebräisches Wörterbuch, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1958

Hebrew and Aramaic

Sander, Ruth and Kerstin Mayerhofer, Retrograde Hebrew and Aramaic dictionary, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 2010. ISBN 978-3-525-55007-6

Hungarian

Papp, Ferenc, A magyar nyelv szóvégmutató szótára [Reverse-alphabetized dictionary of the Hungarian language]. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1969, 2nd ed.: 1994. ISBN 9630567326

Indian, old^{[clarification needed]}

Schwarz, Wolfgang, Rückläufiges Wörterbuch des Altindischen = Reverse index of old Indian, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1974–1978.

Italian

Alinei, M.L., Dizionario inverso italiano, con indici e liste di frequenza delle terminazioni, Mouton & Co., The Hague 1965.

Latin

Gradenwitz, Otto, Laterculi vocum latinarum, Leipzig : S. Hirzel, 1904.
ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ: Dictionaries for ancient Greek and Latin, University of Chicago. (in every page / for every lemma, there is an index which can be either forward or reverse)

Macedonian

Mitrevski, George, Macedonian Reverse Dictionary = Македонски обратен речник. https://www.pelister.org/linguistics/revdict/index.html

Manchu

Rozycki, William, A reverse index of Manchu, Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1981.

Mongolian

Krueger, John Richard, Mongolian epigraphical dictionary in reverse listing, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1967.
Vietze, Hans Peter, Rückläufiges Wörterbuch der mongolischen Sprache, Verlag Enzyklopädie, Leipzig, 1976.

Russian

Reverse Russian Wiktionary
Bielfeldt, H.H., Rückläufiges Wörterbuch der Russischen Sprache der Gegenwart, Akademie Verlag, Berlin, 1958.

Serbo-Croatian

Matešić, Josip, Rückläufiges Wörterbuch des Serbokroatischen, Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1965–1967.

Slovak

Garabík, Radovan et al., Retrográdny slovník súčasnej slovenčiny – slovné tvary na báze Slovenského národného korpusu, VEDA, vydavateľstvo SAV, Bratislava, 2018. ISBN 978-80-224-1699-3.
Mistrík, Jozef, Retrográdny slovník slovenčiny, Univerzita Komenského, Bratislava, 1976. 735 pp.

Slovene

Hajnšek-Holz, Milena and Primož Jakopin, Odzadnji slovar slovenskega jezika po Slovarju slovenskega knjižnega jezika, ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana, 1996.

Spanish

Bosque, I., Pérez, M., Diccionario inverso de la lengua española, Gredos, Madrid, 1987.
Stahl, Fred A., Scavnicky, Gary E. A., A Reverse Dictionary of the Spanish Language, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL, 1974.

Turkish

Kubiyak, Yel, Rückläufiges Wörterbuch des Türkischen, Landeck, Frankfurt, 2004.

Welsh

Zimmer, Stefan, A reverse dictionary of modern Welsh = Geiriadur gwrthdroadol Cymraeg diweddar, Buske, Hamburg, 1987.

References

^ ^a ^b Stahl, Fred A., Scavnicky, Gary E. A., A Reverse Dictionary of the Spanish Language, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL,1974.
^ Walker, John, The rhyming dictionary of the English language: in which the whole language is arranged according to its terminations ..., Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983.