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Anagram dictionary
 
 
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In the main type of anagram
Anagram

An anagram is a type 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....
 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. This arrangement is designed for use in solving word puzzles such as crossword
Crossword

A crossword is a word puzzle that normally takes the form of a square or rectangular grid of black and white squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answers....
s, or for playing games such as 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....
. The first such anagram dictionary was the "Crossword Anagram Dictionary" by R.J.






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In the main type of anagram
Anagram

An anagram is a type 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....
 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. This arrangement is designed for use in solving word puzzles such as crossword
Crossword

A crossword is a word puzzle that normally takes the form of a square or rectangular grid of black and white squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answers....
s, or for playing games such as 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....
. The first such anagram dictionary was the "Crossword Anagram Dictionary" by R.J. Edwards, published in 1978 by Barrie & Jenkins in the UK and Mayflower Books in the US.

In the other kind of anagram dictionary, words are categorized into equivalence classes that consist of words with the same number of each kind of letter. Thus words will only appear when other words can be made from the same letters.

Anagram dictionaries were formerly produced by hand, but can now be trivially generated from any machine-readable word list by computer, by sorting words in order of their sorted letter-strings.

See also

  • Thesaurus
    Thesaurus

    A thesaurus is a work that contains synonyms and sometimes antonyms, in contrast to a dictionary, which contains definitions and pronunciations....
  • Rhyming dictionary
    Rhyming dictionary

    A rhyming dictionary is a specialist dictionary designed for use in writing poetry and lyrics. In a rhyming dictionary, words are categorized into equivalence classes that consist of words which rhyme with one another....


External links

  • A useful anagram dictionary, in addition to assisting with words with missing letters