A six-year-old boy in Victoria whose invented word has not yet been accepted by the Oxford dictionary is seeing the word used more frequently in common language, which is just what he needs for it to be accepted.

Levi Budd came up with 'levidrome,' which refers to a word that has a different meaning when spelled out backwards —such as ‘stop’ and ‘pots.’

The Oxford English dictionary in November said they liked the word, but it would have to be used more often if it were to be accepted as an official word in the dictionary.

Since then, the levidrome has been gaining traction around the world. The Budd family has been inundated with pictures of school projects where students find levidromes. There’s even a YouTube song about the word and a couple of beers, one Swedish and one American, named in the levidrome’s honour. A community newspaper in Toronto is also starting a levidrome word search in its pages.

"It's really incredible seeing how this little idea has really rippled out," Lucky Budd, Levi’s father, told CTV Vancouver. "All over the world we're seeing people posting things about the word levidrome."

The word is also gaining traction among celebrities. Both William Shatner and Olympian Simon Whitfield have offered up their support for Levi’s invention.

The word "semordnilap" describes the same concept and is listed on Macmillan's website.

Levi’s father says all the celebrity attention hasn’t gone to the six-year-old’s head.

"We were at a birthday party a little while ago and the grandmother of the birthday girl walked up to him and said 'Levi, you're famous!' and he looked up at her and said, 'I'm not famous, my word is famous.'"

With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Penny Daflos