Anagram

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Anagram

An anagram (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
anagramma 'letters written anew', passive participle of ana- 'again' + gramma 'letter') is a type of word play

Word play

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Anagram'

Start a new discussion about 'Anagram'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

An anagram (Greek

Greek language

Word play

Word play is a literary technique in which the words that are used become the main subject of the work. Puns, phonetic mix-ups such as spoonerisms, obscure words and meanings, clever rhetorical excursions, oddly formed sentences, and telling character names are common examples of word play....
, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, Eleven plus two = Twelve plus one, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place. Someone who creates anagrams is called an anagrammatist. The original word or phrase is known as the subject of the anagram.

Any word or phrase that exactly reproduces the letters in another order is an anagram. Skill in creating an anagram is permutation to produce phrases which, in some way, reflect or comment on the subject. Such an anagram may be a synonym or antonym of its subject, a parody, a criticism, or praise; e.g. George Bush
George Bush

George Bush may refer to:*George Bush , 19th century biblical scholar and preacher*George Washington Bush , first black settler in what is now the state of Washington...
= He bugs Gore.; Madonna Louise Ciccone
Madonna (entertainer)

Madonna is an American recording artist, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan and raised in Rochester Hills, Michigan, Madonna moved to New York City in 1977, for a career in modern dance....
= Occasional nude income; William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English people poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist....
= I am a weakish speller, Roger Meddows-Taylor
Roger Meddows-Taylor

Roger Taylor is an English musician best known as the percussionist and backing, sometimes lead Singing of the rock band Queen . As a drummer he is known for his "big" unique sound and is considered one of the most influential rock music drummers of the 1970s and 1980s....
= Great words or melody. Another goal of anagrammatists is to produce an anagram which becomes widely known: there are famous or classic anagrams, like "est vir qui adest" below, which was cited as the example in Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson was an English author. Beginning as a Grub Street journalist, he made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, novelist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer....
's A Dictionary of the English Language
A Dictionary of the English Language

Published on 15 April 1755 and written by Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, sometimes published as Johnson's Dictionary, is among the most influential dictionary in the history of the English language....
.

Assumptions

The creation of anagrams assumes certainly an alphabet

Alphabet

An alphabet is a standardized set of letter basic written symbols each of which roughly represents a phoneme, a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past....
, the symbols of which are to be permuted, and the Latin alphabet

Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumae alphabet, and was initially developed by the Ancient Romes to write the Latin....
is usually now implicitly meant. For a given natural language

Natural language

In the philosophy of language, a natural language is a language that is spoken, Sign language, or writing by humans for general-purpose communication, as distinguished from formal languages and from constructed languages....
, diacritic

Diacritic

A diacritic is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. The term derives from the Greek language d?a???t???? ....
s are usually disregarded (usual for English native speakers anyway), and standard orthography

Orthography

The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Orthography is derived from Greek language ????? orth?s and ???fe?? gr?phein ....
is to be used (a point to bear in mind in the history, because spelling in English only slowly became fixed, and is not quite international). There is the important "rule" that every letter must be used, with exactly the same number of occurrences as in the anagrammed word or phrase; any result that falls short is called an imperfect anagram. The history of anagrams shows that that even the language may not be fixed, since anagrams in Latin were considered witty over many centuries. There were attempts to regulate anagram formation, an important one in English being that of George Puttenham

George Puttenham

George Puttenham is the reputed English people author of The Arte of English Poesie ....
Of the Anagram or Posy Transposed in The Art of English Poesie (1589). Historical material on anagrams only makes sense in terms of the current assumptions,

History of anagrams

The construction of anagrams is an amusement

Amusement

Amusement is the state of experience humour and usually entertainment events or situations, and is associated with enjoyment, happiness, laughter and pleasure....
of great antiquity

Ancient history

Ancient history is the history from the History of writing until the Early Middle Ages in Europe, the Qin Dynasty in China, the Chola Empire in India, and some less defined point in the rest of the world ....
. They were popular throughout Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
during the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
, for example with the poet and composer Guillaume de Machaut

Guillaume de Machaut

Guillaume de Machaut, sometimes spelled Machault, , was an important Middle Ages France poet and composer. He is one of the earliest composers for whom significant biographical information is available....
, and go back at least to the Greek poet Lycophron

Lycophron

Lycophron was a Greece poet and grammarian .He was born at Chalcis in Euboea, and flourished at Alexandria in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus ....
, in the third century BCE.

Influence of Latin

As a literary game when Latin was the common property of the literate, Latin anagrams were prominent: two examples are the change of "Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum" (Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord [is] with you) into "Virgo serena, pia, munda et immaculata" (Serene virgin, pious, clean and spotless), and the anagrammatic answer to Pilate's question, "Quid est veritas?" (What is truth?), namely, "Est vir qui adest" (It is the man who is here). The origins of these are not documented. Latin continued to influence letter values (such as I = J, U = V and W = VV).

Early modern period

When it comes to the 17th century and anagrams in English or other languages, there is a great deal of documented evidence of learned interest. The lawyer Thomas Egerton

Thomas Egerton

Thomas Egerton may refer to:*Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley *Thomas Egerton, 1st Earl of Wilton *Thomas Egerton, 2nd Earl of Wilton ...
was praised through the anagram gestat honorem; the physician George Ent

George Ent

George Ent was an English scientist in the seventeenth century who focused on the study of anatomy. He was a member of the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians....
took the anagrammatic motto genio surget, which requires his first name as "Georgius". James I's

James I of England

James VI and I was List of monarchs of Scotland as James VI, and List of English monarchs and King of Ireland as James I. He ruled in Kingdom of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567, when he was only one year old, succeeding his mother Mary I of Scotland....
courtiers discovered in "James Stuart" "a just master", and converted "Charles James Stuart

Charles II of England

Charles II was the Monarchy of Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland.His father Charles I of England Regicide#The regicide of Charles I of England at Palace of Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War....
" into "Claims Arthur

King Arthur

King Arthur is a legendary Britons leader who, according to medieval histories and Romance , led the defence of Britain against the Saxon invaders in the early 6th century....
's seat" (even at that point in time, the letters I and J were more-or-less interchangeable). Walter Quin, tutor to the future Charles I, worked hard on multilingual anagrams on the name of father James. William Drummond of Hawthornden

William Drummond of Hawthornden

William Drummond , called "of Hawthornden" was a Scotland poet....
, in an essay On the Character of a Perfect Anagram, tried to lay down permissible rules (such as S standing for Z), and possible letter omissions. William Camden

William Camden

William Camden was an England antiquarian and historian. He wrote the first topographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and the first detailed historical account of the reign of Elizabeth I of England....
provided a definition of "Anagrammatisme" as "a dissolution of a name truly written into his letters, as his elements, and a new connection of it by artificial transposition, without addition, subtraction or change of any letter, into different words, making some perfect sense applyable (i.e., applicable) to the person named." Dryden

John Dryden

John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of English Restoration to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden....
disdainfully called the pastime the "torturing of one poor word ten thousand ways".

"Eleanor Audeley", wife of Sir John Davies, is said to have been brought before the High Commission in 1634 for extravagances, stimulated by the discovery that her name could be transposed to "Reveale, O Daniel", and to have been laughed out of court by another anagram submitted by the dean of the Arches

Dean of Arches

The Dean of the Arches is the judge who sits at the Ecclesiastical court of the Archbishop of Canterbury in England. This appeal court is commonly called the Arches Court....
, "Dame Eleanor Davies", "Never soe mad a ladie". Natural philosophers of the 17th century transposed their discoveries into Latin anagrams, to establish their priority. Thus Galileo

Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei was a Grand Duchy of Tuscany physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution....
announced his discovery that Venus

Venus

Venus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus , the Roman mythology goddess of love....
had phases like the Moon in the form "Haec immatura a me iam frustra leguntur -oy" (Latin: These immature ones have already been read in vain by me -oy), that is, when rearranged, "Cynthiae figuras aemulatur Mater Amorum" (Latin: The Mother of Loves [= Venus] imitates the figures of Cynthia
Cynthia

Cynthia is a personal name of Greek language origin meaning "from Mount Cynthus" on Delos island. It can be abbreviated as Cindy. Cynthia was originally an epithet of the Greek goddess of the moon, Artemis, who was sometimes called "Cynthia" because, according to legend, the goddess was born on Mount Cynthus....
[= the moon]). Similarly, when Robert Hooke

Robert Hooke

Robert Hooke, Fellow of the Royal Society was an England natural philosopher and polymath who played an important role in the scientific revolution, through both experimental and theoretical work....
discovered Hooke's law

Hooke's law

In mechanics, and physics, Hooke's law of theory of elasticity is an approximation that states that the extension of a spring is in direct proportion with the load added to it as long as this load does not exceed the elastic limit....
in 1660, he first published it in anagram form, ceiinossttu, for ut tensio, sic vis (Latin: as the tension, so the force).

Modern period

Examples from the nineteenth century are the transposition of "Horatio Nelson" into "Honor est a Nilo" (Latin = Honor is from the Nile
Nile

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the List of rivers by length in the world.The Nile has two major tributary, the White Nile and Blue Nile, the latter being the source of most of the Nile's water and silt, but the former being the longer of the two....
); and of "Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale, Order of Merit , Royal Red Cross , who came to be known as "The Lady with the Lamp", was a pioneering nurse, writer and noted statistician....
" into "Flit on, cheering angel". The Victorian love of anagramming as recreation is alluded to by Augustus De Morgan using his own name as example; "Great Gun, do us a sum!" is attributed to his son William De Morgan

William De Morgan

William Frend De Morgan was an England potter and tile designer. A life-long friend of William Morris, he designed tiles, stained glass and furniture for Morris & Co....
, but a family friend John Thomas Graves

John T. Graves

John Thomas Graves, Esq. was an Ireland jurist and mathematician. He was a friend of William Rowan Hamilton, and is credited both with inspiring Hamilton to discover the quaternions and with personally discovering the octonions, which he called the octaves....
was prolific, and a manuscript with over 2,800 has been preserved.

With the advent of surrealism

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early-1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
as a poetic movement, anagrams regained the artistic respect they had had in the Baroque period. The German poet Unica Zürn

Unica Zürn

Unica Z?rn was a Germany author and Painting. She is remembered for her works of anagram poetry and exhibitions of automatic drawing....
, who made extensive use of anagram techniques, came to regard obsession with anagrams as a "dangerous fever", because it created isolation of the author. The surrealist leader André Breton

André Breton

Andr? Breton was a French writer, poet, and surrealist theorist, and is best known as the main founder of surrealism. His writings include the Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as pure psychic automatism....
coined the anagram Avida Dollars for Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dal? i Dom?nech, 1st Marquis of P?bol was a Spain Catalonia surrealist painter born in Figueres.Dal? was a skilled Technical drawing, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealism work....
, to tarnish his reputation by the implication of commercialism.

Pseudonyms

Anagrams are connected to pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym, , is a fictitious alternative to a person's legal name. In some cases, pseudonyms are adopted because it is part of a cultural or organizational tradition, as in the case of Religious names used by members of some religious orders and "cadre names" used by Communist party leaders such as Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin....
s, by the fact that they may conceal or reveal, or operate somewhere in between like a mask that can establish identity. For example, Jim Morrison

Jim Morrison

James Douglas Morrison was an United States singer, songwriter, poet, writer and film maker. He is best known as the lead singer and lyricist of The Doors and is widely considered to be one of the most charismatic Lead singers in rock music history....
came up with an anagram of his name in the Doors song L.A. Woman
L.A. Woman

L.A. Woman is the sixth and last studio album that the American rock & roll band The Doors recorded with lead singer Jim Morrison, who died in July 1971....
, calling himself "Mr. Mojo Risin' ". The use of anagrams and fabricated personal names may be to get round restrictions on the use of real names, as happened in the eighteenth century when Edward Cave

Edward Cave

Edward Cave, , was an England printer, editor and publisher. In The Gentleman's Magazine he created the first general-interest "magazine" in the modern sense....
wanted to get round on restrictions imposed on the reporting of the House of Commons

House of Commons

The House of Commons is the name of the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada.In the UK and Canada, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the upper house of parliament ....
. In a genre such as farce

Farce

A farce is a comedy written for the stage or film which aims to entertain the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include sexual innuendo and word play, and a fast-paced Plot whose speed usually increases, culminat...
or parody

Parody

A parody , in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, or author, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation....
, anagrams as names may be used for pointed and satiric effect.

Pseudonyms adopted by author

Author

An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created....
s are sometimes transposed forms,of their names; thus "Calvinus" becomes "Alcuinus" (here V = U) or "François Rabelais

François Rabelais

Fran?ois Rabelais was a major French Renaissance writer, doctor and Renaissance humanism. He was regarded as a writer of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, dirty jokes and bawdy songs....
" = "Alcofribas Nasier". The name "Voltaire

Voltaire

Fran?ois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Age of Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosophy known for his wit, philosophical sport, and defense of civil liberty, including freedom of religion and free trade....
" of François Marie Arouet fits this pattern, and is allowed to be an anagram of "Arouet, l[e] j[eune]" (U = V, J = I) that is, "Arouet the younger". Other examples: "Arrigo Boito

Arrigo Boito

Arrigo Boito , aka Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito, pseudonym Tobia Gorrio, was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist and composer, best known today for his opera libretto and his own opera, Mefistofele....
" = "Tobia Gorrio"; "Edward Gorey

Edward Gorey

Edward St. John Gorey was an United States writer and artist noted for his macabre illustrated books....
" = "Ogdred Weary", = "Regera Dowdy" or = "E. G. Deadworry" (and others); "Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a Multilingualism Russian-American novelist and short story writer.Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian language, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist....
" = "Vivian Darkbloom", = "Vivian Bloodmark" or = "Dorian Vivalcomb"; "Bryan Waller Proctor" = "Barry Cornwall, poet"; "(Sanche) de Gramont" = "Ted Morgan

Ted Morgan

Ted Morgan is a France-United States writer, biographer, journalist, and historian. He was born Comte St. Charles Armand Gabriel de Gramont on March 30 1932, in Geneva....
", and so on. Several of these are "imperfect anagrams", letters having been left out in some cases for the sake of easy pronunciation.

Summary anagrams

Summary anagrams are anagrams of quoted passages from literature that convey the essence of the work itself. This style is a favorite genre of anagrammatists such as Simon Woodard. Below is an example of one of Woodard's polished summary anagrams, of the first lines of a popular translation of Homer

Homer

Homer is traditionally held to be the author of the ancient Greek language epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as of the Homeric Hymns....
's Odyssey
Odyssey

The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Hellenic civilization epic poetrys attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work traditionally ascribed to Homer....
:

"Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns, driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy." – Homer's Odyssey

Summary anagram:

Hurrying home to his wife, Odysseus shoved off, fled the sea god's wrath, endured many moments of mistreatment, then landed on southern Ithaca... a long epic!

Another summary anagram by the same author anagrams the first line of Herman Melville

Herman Melville

Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist and poet. His first three books gained much attention, the first becoming a bestseller, but after a fast-blooming literary success in the late 1840s, his popularity declined precipitously in the mid-1850s and never recovered during his lifetime....
's Moby Dick into an expansion of the novel's plot:

"Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on the shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world."

Summary anagram:

To relocate on a whaling ship for months did not seem deadly or nightmarish to me. Then, the wily nut Ahab (our captain with one leg) imperilled our entire voyage, attempting carelessly to lure a monstrous, lone, silvery whale.

Methods of construction

Sometimes it is possible to "see" anagrams in words, unaided by tools, though the more letters involved the more difficult this becomes. Anagram dictionaries

Anagram dictionary

In the main type of anagram dictionary, the letters in words or phrases are rearranged in alphabetical order, and these transpositions are themselves then ordered alphabetically within word-length groups, so that any words consisting of this group of letters can be found....
could also be used. Computer programs, known as "anagram servers", "anagram solvers" or "anagrammers", offer a much faster route to creating anagrams, and large number of these programs are available on the Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global network of interconnected computers, enabling users to share information along multiple channels. Typically, a computer that connects to the Internet can access information from a vast array of available server and other computers by moving information from them to the computer's local memory....
. The program

Computer program

Computer programs are Instruction for a computer. A computer requires programs to function. Moreover, a computer program does not run unless its instructions are executed by a Central processing unit; however, a program may communicate an Algorithm#Formalization of algorithms to people without running....
or server

Server (computing)

A server is a computer program that provides services to other computer programs , in the same or other computer. The physical computer that runs a server program is also often referred to as server....
carries out an exhaustive search of a database of words, to produce a list containing every possible combination of words or phrases from the input word or phrase. Some programs (such as Lexpert restrict to one-word answers. Many anagram servers can control the search results, by excluding or including certain words, limiting the number or length of words in each anagram, or limiting the number of results. Anagram solvers are often banned from online anagram games. The disadvantage of computer anagram solvers, especially when applied to multi-word anagrams, is that their poor understanding of the meaning of the words they are manipulating. They usually cannot filter out meaningful or appropriate anagrams from large numbers of nonsensical word combinations.

Some anagrammatists indicate the method they used. Anagrams constructed without aid of a computer are noted as having been done ‘manually’ or ‘by hand’; those made by utilizing a computer may be noted ‘by machine’ or ‘by computer’, or may indicate the name of the computer program (using ‘Anagram Genius’).

There are also a few "natural" instances: English words unconsciously created by switching letters around. The French chaise longue ("long chair") became the American "chaise lounge" by metathesis

Metathesis (linguistics)

Metathesis is a sound change that alters the order of phonemes in a word. The most common instance of metathesis is the reversal of the order of two adjacent phonemes, such as "comfterble" for comfortable ....
(transposition of letters and/or sounds). It has also been speculated that the English "curd" comes from the Latin crudus ("raw").

Anagrams in psychology

Psychologists today use anagram-oriented tests, often called "anagram solution tasks", to assess the implicit memory

Implicit memory

Implicit memory is a type of memory in which previous experiences aid in the performance of a task without conscious awareness of these previous experiences....
of young adults and adults alike.

Recreations, games and puzzles

Anagrams are in themselves a recreational activity, but they also make up part of many other games, puzzles and game show

Game show

A game show is a type of television program in which members of the public or celebrity, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving problems for money and/or prizes....
s. A continuing popular amusement is the construction of apposite anagrams of the names of famous people (or friends); for example, Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher Order of the Garter, Order of Merit, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Fellow of the Royal Society was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990....
= That great charmer, Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness

Sir Alec Guinness, Order of the Companions of Honour, Order of the British Empire was an Academy Award for Best Actor winning English actor....
= Genuine Class, Elvis Aaron Presley = Seen alive? Sorry, pal!, Vin Diesel
Vin Diesel

Vin Diesel is an American actor, screenwriter, film director, and film producer. While he prefers to identify himself as a "multi-faceted" actor he has played a number of similar roles, as a result of early difficulties finding roles due to his very mixed heritage....
= I End Lives, Steve Martin
Steve Martin

Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an Emmy Award-winning United States actor, comedian, writer, playwright, Film producer, musician, and composer....
= I’m star event, Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood

Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American actor, film director, film producer and composer. He is known for his tough guy, anti-hero acting roles in Action films and western films, particularly in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s....
= Old West Action. The Jumble

Jumble

Jumble, is a Word game in which a player is given a set of letters which, when arranged in the correct order, give the un-jumbled Word . A simple example would be the set of letters "lbujme," which can then be rearranged to spell "jumble"....
is a puzzle found in many newspapers in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
requiring the unscrambling of letters to find the solution.

Cryptic crossword

Cryptic crossword

Cryptic crosswords are crossword of a special type: one in which each clue is a word puzzle in and of itself. Cryptic crosswords are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they originated, as well as in several other Commonwealth of Nations nations, including, Kenya, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Malta and India....
puzzles frequently use anagrammatic clues, usually indicating that they are anagrams by the inclusion of a descriptive term like "confused" or "in disarray". An example would be Businessman burst into tears (9 letters). The solution, stationer, is an anagram of into tears, the letters of which have burst out of their original arrangement to form the name of a type of businessman.

Numerous games involve some element of imperfect anagram formation as a basic skill:

In a version of Scrabble
Scrabble

Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid....
called Clabbers
Clabbers

Clabbers is a game played by tournament Scrabble players for fun, or occasionally at Scrabble variant tournaments. The name derives from the fact that the words CLABBERS and SCRABBLE form an anagram pair....
, the name itself being an anagram of Scrabble, tiles may be placed in any order on the board as long as they anagram to a valid word.
On the British game show Countdown
Countdown (game show)

Countdown is a British game show made by ITV Productions and broadcast on Channel 4. It is currently presented by Jeff Stelling and Rachel Riley, with regular lexicographer Susie Dent....
, contestants are given 30 seconds to make the longest word from nine random letters.
In Boggle
Boggle

Boggle is a word game designed by Allan Turoff and trademarked by Parker Brothers and Hasbro. The game is played using a grid of lettered dice, in which players attempt to find words in sequences of adjacent letters....
, players make constrained words from a grid of sixteen random letters, by joining adjacent cubes.
On the British game show BrainTeaser
BrainTeaser

BrainTeaser was a United Kingdom game show, first broadcast in 2002, produced by Endemol UK subsidiary Cheetah Productions.BrainTeaser was live television, with phone-in viewer puzzles being announced and played during the show in addition to the studio....
, contestants are shown a word broken into randomly arranged segments and must announce the whole word. At the end of the game there is a "Pyramid" which starts with a three-letter word. A letter appears in the line below to which the player must add the existing letters to find a solution. The pattern continues until the player reaches the final eight-letter anagram. The player wins the game by solving all the anagrams within the allotted time.
In Bananagrams
Bananagrams

Bananagrams is a word game in which lettered tiles are used to spell words, designed by Rena Nathanson of of Cranston, Rhode Island, Rhode Island....
, players place tiles from a pool into crossword-style
Crossword Puzzle

For the common puzzle, see CrosswordCrossword Puzzle was the second to last album made by The Partridge Family and was not one of the most popular albums....
word arrangements in a race to see who can finish the pool of tiles first.

Anagrammy Awards

Anagrammy, a non-commercial web site run by anagram aficionados, hosts a monthly competition for various categories of original anagrams, including people's names, current events, long anagrams, and rude anagrams. Participants are free to post their original anagrams throughout the month on the Anagrammy forum, and nominate those deemed worthy for an Anagrammy award. Voting is usually held during the first week of each month. An annual Grand Anagrammy voting contest is also hosted for all winning anagrams. The web site also includes practical information on anagramming techniques, and a database of famous and winning anagrams.

Example anagrams

In 1975, British naturalist Sir Peter Scott coined the scientific term "Nessiteras rhombopteryx" (Greek for "The monster of Ness
Loch Ness

Loch Ness is a large, deep, freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands extending for approximately 37 km southwest of Inverness. Its surface is 15.8 metres above sea level....
with the diamond shaped fin") for the apocryphal Loch Ness Monster
Loch Ness Monster

The Loch Ness Monster is a creature alleged to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is similar to other supposed lake monsters in Scotland and elsewhere, though its description varies from one account to the next....
. Shortly afterwards, several London newspapers pointed out that "Nessiteras rhombopteryx" anagrams into "Monster hoax by Sir Peter S". However, Robert Rines, who previously made two underwater photographs allegedly showing the monster, countered with the fact that they can also be arranged into "Yes both pix are monsters, R."
In the Simpsons episode Homer's Night Out
Homer's Night Out

"Homer's Night Out" is the tenth episode of The Simpsons The Simpsons , and originally aired on 25 March 1990. It was written by Jon Vitti and directed by Rich Moore....
, while the family was at a restaurant, Bart notices a sign reading "Cod Platter" and rearranges the letters to spell "Cold Pet Rat" as an anagram. In Treehouse of Horror II
Treehouse of Horror II

"Treehouse of Horror II" is the seventh episode of The Simpsons The Simpsons , the second Treehouse of Horror , and the first Halloween episode where names in the closing credits were replaced by 'spooky name' parodies....
a girl notices a park sign saying "Danger" and changes it to spell "Garden."
In Amanda Filipacchi
Amanda Filipacchi

Amanda Filipacchi is an United States writer best known for her humorous, inventive, and controversial novels.Her fiction has been translated into 13 languages and has received critical acclaim in the U.S....
's novel Vapor, the protagonist
Protagonist

A protagonist is the main Character of a drama or Narrative. The word "protagonist" derives from the Greek language p??ta????st?? , "one who plays the first part, chief actor." In the theatre of Ancient Greece, three actors played all of the main dramatic roles in a tragedy; the leading role was played by the protagonist, while the othe...
's name is Anna Graham, and because of this, the scientist who kidnaps her is constantly leaving her anagrams that she must figure out, but they are in the form of objects. For example, when he leaves her a ruby, she has to understand he's actually saying "bury". When he leaves her rubies, he means "bruise", when he leaves her garnets, he means "strange", etc. The book ends with him leaving her a white rose, and she is supposed to figure out the one-word anagram these nine letters make. She does figure it out, but the author leaves readers to solve the anagram on their own.
The Chuck Norris Facts
Chuck Norris Facts

Chuck Norris facts are satire factoids about martial artist and actor Chuck Norris that have become an Internet phenomenon and as a result have become widespread in popular culture....
include the "fact" that "Walker Texas Ranger" is an anagram of "Karate Wrangler Sex."
In Kingdom Hearts II
Kingdom Hearts II

is an action role-playing game developed by Square Enix and published by Disney Interactive Studios and Square Enix in 2005 for the Sony Computer Entertainment PlayStation 2 video game console....
, name of each member of Organization XIII
Organization XIII

File:Org XIII.jpg is a fictional group of characters featured in Square Enix and Buena Vista Games' Kingdom Hearts video game series. Kingdom Hearts is a Fictional crossover of various The Walt Disney Company settings based in a Parallel universe made specifically for the series....
is an anagram of each member's original name plus letter X. Sora's nobody, Roxas
Organization XIII

File:Org XIII.jpg is a fictional group of characters featured in Square Enix and Buena Vista Games' Kingdom Hearts video game series. Kingdom Hearts is a Fictional crossover of various The Walt Disney Company settings based in a Parallel universe made specifically for the series....
, is an anagram minus the X.
Homer Hickam, Jr.'s book Rocket Boys
Rocket Boys

Rocket Boys is the first memoir in a series of three, by Homer Hickam It is a story of growing up in a mining town, and a boy's pursuit of amateur rocketry in a pure company mining town....
was adapted into the 1999 film October Sky. Both titles are anagrams of each other.
The London Underground anagram map
London Underground anagram map

A parody map of the London Underground with the station and line names replaced with anagrams was circulated on the web in February 2006 and featured on thousands of blogs before a Transport for London lawyer requested that the map be removed....
, a parody map of the London Underground with the station and line names replaced with anagrams, was circulated on the web in February 2006.
Harry Potter
Harry Potter

Harry Potter is a Heptalogy fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the eponymous adolescent wizard Harry Potter , together with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, his friends from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry....
villain Lord Voldemort
Lord Voldemort

Lord Voldemort is a fictional character and the main Antagonist in the Harry Potter novel series written by United Kingdom author J. K. Rowling....
derived the title from his given name: Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort, the name Tom Riddle was changed in different languages so it would still represent the languages' 'I am Lord Voldemort', such as in French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
where Tom Marvolo Riddle became Tom Elvis Jedusor, Je suis Voldemort.
In the TV show House, M.D., Dr. Gregory House notes that a good anagram of his name would be "Huge Ego Sorry".
The tapes for the revival of BBC show Doctor Who
Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a British Science fiction on television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a mysterious alien Time travel known as "Doctor " who travels in his space and time-ship, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s police box....
were labeled with the anagram Torchwood, which later went on to be used as the name for a spin-off show
Torchwood

Torchwood is a United Kingdom science fiction on television drama television programme, created by Russell T Davies and starring John Barrowman and Eve Myles....
.
Anagrams were used as song names during the Muse Cryptography tour. These included Swiss Rhapsody (Password is shy), Timescale Keeper (Keep E-mail secret) and Unpacked Residents (Send Naked Pictures).
In the opening sequence of the BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers
Fawlty Towers

Fawlty Towers is a British sitcom produced by the BBC Television and first broadcast on BBC Two in 1975. Although only twelve episodes were produced , the programme has had a lasting and powerful legacy....
, the hotel sign is seen to have changed from "Fawlty Towers" to an anagram or partial anagram thereof. A variety of different "anagrams" were featured, but only one – the risqué "Flowery Twats" – actually used all the letters. See List of Fawlty Towers episodes
List of Fawlty Towers episodes

This is a list of episodes for the British sitcom Fawlty Towers, written by John Cleese and Connie Booth, which was broadcast on BBC Two from 19 September 1975 to 25 October 1979....
for a full list.
Avant-garde
Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
musician Buckethead
Buckethead

Brian Patrick Carroll, better known as Buckethead, is an American musician and songwriter. He has released 25 solo albums and performed on over 50 more....
also releases albums as "Death Cube K
Dreamatorium

Dreamatorium is Buckethead's first album under the anagram name "Death Cube K". It was released on May 13 1994, by Strata and again in 1995, including a graphics image generator software by Interactive Multimedia Corporation as the first track....
".
The New Wave band Missing Persons' best-selling album was called Spring Session M
Spring Session M

Spring Session M is the debut album by United States new wave music band Missing Persons , released in 1982 . The title of the album is an anagram of the band's name....
.
Enid Coleslaw, the protagonist of graphic novel (and later movie) Ghost World
Ghost World

Ghost World is a comic book written and illustrated by Daniel Clowes. It was originally Serial ized in issues #11 through #18 of Clowes's comic book series Eightball , and was first published in book form in 1997 by Fantagraphics Books....
, is an anagram for the book's author, Daniel Clowes
Daniel Clowes

Daniel Gillespie Clowes is an Academy Award-nominated United States author, screenwriter and cartoonist of alternative comics. Most of Clowes' work appears first in his ongoing anthology Eightball , a collection of self-contained narratives and serialized graphic novels....
.
In Hollyoaks
Hollyoaks

Hollyoaks is an award winning British television soap opera which was first broadcast on 23 October 1995 on Channel 4. It was originally devised by Phil Redmond, who has also devised shows including Brookside and Grange Hill ....
the words "End Evil Care" is an anagram of the villainess character Clare Devine
Clare Devine

Clare Cunningham is a fictional character on the long-running Channel 4 United Kingdom television soap opera Hollyoaks.She was first seen on the series in 2005, played by Samantha Rowley....
.
In the Captain Underpants
Captain Underpants

Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey is a series of United States Children's literature about two fourth School grades , George Beard and Harold Hutchins, and the aptly-named superhero they accidentally create by hypnotizing their principal, Mr....
children's books, the two children always rearrange the billboard sign letters making outrageous anagrams.
Anagrams feature prominently in the novel The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code

The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 in literature Mystery -detective fiction fiction novel written by United States author Dan Brown and published by the Doubleday in the United States and Bantam Books in the United Kingdom....
as clues in the Louvre.
Hip-hop artist MF DOOM recorded a 2004 album called MM..FOOD.
From Libba Bray
Libba Bray

Libba Bray is an author of young adult novels, including the books A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing....
's Gemma Doyle Trilogy
Gemma Doyle Trilogy

The Gemma Doyle Trilogy is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Libba Bray. They are told from the perspective of Gemma Doyle, a girl in the late nineteenth century....
, "Hester Asa Moore" Anagrams into "Sarah-Rees Toome", her previously known by name.
Brian Eno
Brian Eno

Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno , is an England musician, composer, record producer, music theory and singer, who, as a solo artist, is best known as the People known as the father or mother of something of ambient music....
's album Before and After Science includes a song entitled "King's Lead Hat", an anagram of "Talking Heads
Talking Heads

Talking Heads was an American rock music rock band formed in 1974 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison....
", a band Eno has worked with.

Anagram

Assumptions

History of anagrams

Influence of Latin

Early modern period

Modern period

Pseudonyms

Summary anagrams

Methods of construction

Anagrams in psychology

Recreations, games and puzzles

Anagrammy Awards

Example anagrams

See also

External links