Meaning & use
anagram
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Meanings
nouncountable
A word or phrase made by rearranging all the letters of another word or phrase.
Grammar: Takes a plural: anagrams; often followed by of.
Patterns
- an anagram of something
Listen is an anagram of silent.
She loves solving anagrams of famous names.
The riddle's answer is an anagram of the clue.
nouncountable
A puzzle in which you rearrange letters to find a hidden word.
Grammar: Common in crosswords and word games.
Patterns
- solve an anagram
The crossword clue was an anagram.
Kids enjoyed the anagram game on the bus.
He writes anagrams for the school magazine.
Word forms
| plural | anagrams |
|---|
Common combinations
- an anagram of
- Stone is an anagram of notes.
- solve an anagram
- She can solve an anagram in seconds.
- form an anagram
- You can form an anagram from these letters.
- crossword anagram
- The crossword anagram stumped him.
- perfect anagram
- Dormitory and dirty room make a perfect anagram.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- anagrammatic adjective
- relating to an anagram
- anagrammatize verb
- to make an anagram of
- anagrammatist noun
- someone who makes anagrams
- palindrome noun
- a word that reads the same backward, a related word-play term
Commonly confused: anagram or palindrome? anagram or acronym?
anagram vs palindrome
A palindrome reads the same backward and forward, like level; an anagram rearranges letters into a different word.
anagram vs acronym
An acronym is a word formed from initial letters, like NASA, not from rearranged letters.
Practice
Which word is an anagram of the word night?
Choose one answer.
Thing uses exactly the same letters as night, n-i-g-h-t, in a new order. The others change a letter.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “anagram”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.