A palindromic number reads the same forwards and backwards in its decimal representation. Examples: 11, 121, 1234321, 9999999.
The definition is base-dependent: 9 (decimal palindrome) is also 1001 in base 2 — a binary palindrome. Some numbers are palindromes in multiple bases simultaneously.
A famous open problem is the Lychrel conjecture: starting from any number, repeatedly add the number to its digit-reversal. For most numbers, you eventually reach a palindrome. The number 196 is the smallest candidate that has not yet been shown to either reach a palindrome or to never reach one — it has been iterated billions of times without producing a palindrome.