What is an anagram?
An anagram is a word or phrase made by rearranging all the letters of another word or phrase. For example, listen is an anagram of silent, and dormitory is an anagram of dirty room.
To make an anagram, you must use every letter exactly once. Simple examples include heart and earth, night and thing, and elbow and below. Longer phrase anagrams can be clever or funny, such as astronomer becoming moon starer or the eyes becoming they see.
Anagrams have been popular for centuries. Some writers and scientists hid discoveries in anagrams to claim credit without revealing them too early. Galileo used anagrams in 1610 to announce his observations of Saturn and Venus. Authors have also used anagrams to create pen names.
Anagrams in games and puzzles
Anagrams are central to word games like Scrabble and Bananagrams, and to crossword puzzles, where clues often hint that letters must be rearranged. In the Harry Potter books, the name Tom Marvolo Riddle is an anagram of I am Lord Voldemort.
Did You Know?
A word that reads the same backward and forward, like level or radar, is called a palindrome, not an anagram.