An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into ''nag a ram'', also the word ''binary'' into ''brainy'' and the word ''adobe'' into ''abode''. 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. Someone who creates anagrams may be called an "anagrammatist", and the goal of a serious or skilled anagrammatist is to produce anagrams that reflect or comment on their subject.

Examples

Anagram President Obama = a baptism redone

Anagrams may be created as a commentary on the subject. They may be a parody, a criticism or satire. For example: * "

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

" = " monkeys write" * " Church of Scientology" = "rich-chosen goofy cult" * "

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

restaurants" = " Uncle Sam's standard rot" * "

coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the co ...

" = " carnivorous" * "

She Sells Sanctuary "She Sells Sanctuary" is a song by British rock band the Cult. It is from their second studio album, ''Love'' (1985), and was released as a single on 13 May 1985, peaking at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart in July of the same year. In July 20 ...

" = " Santa; shy, less cruel" or "

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehoo ...

; cruel, less shy" An anagram may also be a synonym of the original word. For example: * "evil" = "vile" * "a

gentleman A gentleman (Old French: ''gentilz hom'', gentle + man) is any man of good and courteous conduct. Originally, ''gentleman'' was the lowest rank of the landed gentry of England, ranking below an esquire and above a yeoman; by definition, the r ...

" = "elegant man" * "eleven plus two" = "twelve plus one" An anagram that has a meaning opposed to that of the original word or phrase is called an "antigram". For example: * "restful" = "fluster" * "cheater" = "teacher" * "

funeral A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect ...

" = "real fun" * "

adultery Adultery (from Latin ''adulterium'') is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal ...

" = "true lady" * "forty five" = "over fifty" * " Santa" = "

" They can sometimes change from a proper noun or personal name into an appropriate sentence: * "

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

" = "I am a weakish speller" * " Madam Curie" = "Radium came" * " Ronald Wilson Reagan" = "Insane anglo warlord" * " George Bush" = "He bugs

Gore Gore may refer to: Places Australia * Gore, Queensland * Gore Creek (New South Wales) * Gore Island (Queensland) Canada * Gore, Nova Scotia, a rural community * Gore, Quebec, a township municipality * Gore Bay, Ontario, a township on Manito ...

" * " Tom Marvolo Riddle" = "I am

Lord Voldemort Lord Voldemort ( , in the films) is a sobriquet for Tom Marvolo Riddle, a character and the main antagonist in J. K. Rowling's series of '' Harry Potter'' novels. The character first appeared in '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's S ...

" They can change

part of speech In grammar, a part of speech or part-of-speech (abbreviated as POS or PoS, also known as word class or grammatical category) is a category of words (or, more generally, of lexical items) that have similar grammatical properties. Words that are as ...

, such as the adjective "silent" to the verb "listen". "Anagrams" itself can be anagrammatized as ''"Ars magna"'' (Latin, 'the great art').

History

Anagrams can be traced back to the time of the ancient Greeks, and were used to find the hidden and mystical meaning in names. They were popular throughout Europe during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, for example with the poet and composer

Guillaume de Machaut Guillaume de Machaut (, ; also Machau and Machault; – April 1377) was a French composer and poet who was the central figure of the style in late medieval music. His dominance of the genre is such that modern musicologists use his death t ...

. They are said to date back at least to the Greek poet

Lycophron Lycophron (; grc-gre, Λυκόφρων ὁ Χαλκιδεύς; born about 330–325 BC) was a Hellenistic Greek tragic poet, grammarian, sophist, and commentator on comedy, to whom the poem ''Alexandra'' is attributed (perhaps falsely). Life a ...

, in the third century BCE; but this relies on an account of Lycophron given by

John Tzetzes John Tzetzes ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης Τζέτζης, Iōánnēs Tzétzēs; c. 1110, Constantinople – 1180, Constantinople) was a Byzantine poet and grammarian who is known to have lived at Constantinople in the 12th century. He was able to pr ...

in the 12th century. In the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...

ic and

Midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. he, מִדְרָשׁ; ...

ic literature, anagrams were used to

interpret Interpreting is a Translation studies, translational activity in which one produces a first and final target-language output on the basis of a one-time exposure to an expression in a Source language (translation), source language. The most commo ...

the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Eleazar of Modi'im. Later,

Kabbalists Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "receiver"). The defin ...

took this up with enthusiasm, calling anagrams ''temurah''. Anagrams in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

were considered witty over many centuries. ''Est vir qui adest'', explained below, was cited as the example in

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

's ''

A Dictionary of the English Language ''A Dictionary of the English Language'', sometimes published as ''Johnson's Dictionary'', was published on 15 April 1755 and written by Samuel Johnson. It is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language. T ...

''. They became hugely popular in the early modern period, especially in Germany. Any historical material on anagrams must always be interpreted in terms of the assumptions and spellings that were current for the language in question. In particular, spelling in English only slowly became fixed. There were attempts to regulate anagram formation, an important one in English being that of

George Puttenham George Puttenham (1529–1590) was an English writer and literary critic. He is generally considered to be the author of the influential handbook on poetry and rhetoric, ''The Arte of English Poesie'' (1589). Family and early life Puttenham wa ...

's ''Of the Anagram or Posy Transposed'' in ''The Art of English Poesie'' (1589).

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 The Hail Mary ( la, Ave Maria) is a traditional Christian prayer addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the Gospel of Luke: the Angel Gabriel's visit to Mary (the Annunciation) and Mary's ...

, gratia plena, Dominus tecum'' (Latin: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord swith you) into ''Virgo serena, pia, munda et immaculata'' (Latin: Serene

virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

, pious, clean and spotless), and the anagrammatic answer to Pilate's question, ''Quid est veritas?'' (Latin: What is truth?), namely, ''Est vir qui adest'' (Latin: 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). There was an ongoing tradition of allowing anagrams to be "perfect" if the letters were all used once, but allowing for these interchanges. This can be seen in a popular Latin anagram against the

Jesuits , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...

: ''Societas Jesu'' turned into ''Vitiosa seces'' (Latin: Cut off the wicked things). Puttenham, in the time of

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...

, wished to start from ''Elissabet Anglorum Regina'' (Latin: Elizabeth Queen of the English), to obtain ''Multa regnabis ense gloria'' (Latin: By thy sword shalt thou reign in great renown); he explains carefully that H is "a note of aspiration only and no letter", and that Z in Greek or Hebrew is a mere SS. The rules were not completely fixed in the 17th century.

William Camden William Camden (2 May 1551 – 9 November 1623) was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and herald, best known as author of ''Britannia'', the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and the ''Ann ...

in his ''Remains'' commented, singling out some letters— Æ, K, W, and Z—not found in the classical Roman alphabet:

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 was praised through the anagram ''gestat honorem'' ('he carries honor'); the physician

George Ent George Ent (6 November 1604 – 13 October 1689) was an English scientist in the seventeenth century. Biography Ent was born on 6 November 1604 in Sandwich, Kent. He was the son of a Belgian immigrant, Josias Ent (sometimes called John Ent) ...

took the anagrammatic motto ''genio surget'' ('he rises through spirit/genius'), which requires his first name as ''Georgius''. James I's courtiers discovered in "James Stuart" "a just master", and converted "Charles James Stuart" into "Claims Arthur's

seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but also headquarters in a wider sense. Types of seat The following are examples of different kinds of seat: * Armchair, a chair ...

" (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. A notorious murder scandal, the Overbury case, threw up two imperfect anagrams that were aided by typically loose spelling and were recorded by Simonds D'Ewes: "Francis Howard" (for Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset, her maiden name spelled in a variant) became "Car findes a whore", with the letters E hardly counted, and the victim Thomas Overbury, as "Thomas Overburie", was written as "O! O! a busie murther" (an old form of "murder"), with a V counted as U.

William Drummond of Hawthornden William Drummond (13 December 15854 December 1649), called "of Hawthornden", was a Scottish poet. Life Drummond was born at Hawthornden Castle, Midlothian, to John Drummond, the first laird of Hawthornden, and Susannah Fowler, sister of the ...

, in an essay ''On the Character of a Perfect Anagram'', tried to lay down rules for permissible substitutions (such as S standing for Z) and letter omissions.

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 appliable (i.e., applicable) to the person named." Dryden in '' MacFlecknoe'' 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

Sir John Lambe Sir John Lambe (1566? – 1647) was an English jurist, closely associated with the ecclesiastical policy of William Laud. Life He was probably born about 1566, graduated B.A. at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1587, and M.A. in 1590. In th ...

, the dean of the Arches, "Dame Eleanor Davies", "Never soe mad a ladie". An example from France was a flattering anagram for Cardinal Richelieu, comparing him to

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the ...

or at least one of his hands (Hercules being a kingly symbol), where ''Armand de Richelieu'' became ''Ardue main d'Hercule'' ("difficult hand of Hercules").

Modern period

Examples from the 19th century are the transposition of " Horatio Nelson" into ''Honor est a Nilo'' (Latin: Honor is from the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest riv ...

); and of "

Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War ...

" into "Flit on, cheering angel". The Victorian love of anagramming as recreation is alluded to by the mathematician Augustus De Morgan using his own name as an example; "Great Gun, do us a sum!" is attributed to his son William De Morgan, but a family friend John Thomas Graves was prolific, and a manuscript with over 2,800 has been preserved. With the advent of

surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

as a poetic movement, anagrams regained the artistic respect they had had in the

Baroque period The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires includin ...

. The German poet

Unica Zürn Unica Zürn (6 July 1916 – 19 October 1970) was a German author and artist. Zürn is remembered for her works of anagram poetry and automatic drawing and for her photographic collaborations with Hans Bellmer. An exhibition of Bellmer and Zür ...

, 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 coined the anagram ''Avida Dollars'' for

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...

, to tarnish his reputation by the implication of commercialism.

Applications

While anagramming is certainly a recreation first, there are ways in which anagrams are put to use, and these can be more serious, or at least not quite frivolous and formless. For example, psychologists use anagram-oriented tests, often called "anagram solution tasks", to assess the implicit memory of young adults and adults alike.Java, Rosalind I. "Priming and Aging: Evidence of Preserved Memory Function in an Anagram Solution Task." ''The American Journal of Psychology'', Vol. 105, No. 4. (Winter, 1992), pp. 541–548.

Establishment of priority

Natural philosophers (astronomers and others) of the 17th century transposed their discoveries into Latin anagrams, to establish their priority. In this way they laid claim to new discoveries before their results were ready for publication.

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...

used ' for ' (Latin: I have observed the most distant planet to have a triple form) for discovering the rings of Saturn in 1610. Galileo announced his discovery that

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

had phases like the Moon in the form ' (Latin: These immature ones have already been read in vain by me -oy), that is, when rearranged, ' (Latin: The Mother of Loves Venusimitates the figures of Cynthia the moon. In both cases,

Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws ...

had solved the anagrams incorrectly, assuming they were talking about the Moons of Mars (') and a red spot on Jupiter ('), respectively. By coincidence, he turned out to be right about the actual objects existing. In 1656,

Christiaan Huygens Christiaan Huygens, Lord of Zeelhem, ( , , ; also spelled Huyghens; la, Hugenius; 14 April 1629 – 8 July 1695) was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor, who is regarded as one of the greatest scientists o ...

, using a better telescope than those available to Galileo, figured that Galileo's earlier observations of Saturn actually meant it had a ring (Galileo's tools were only sufficient to see it as bumps) and, like Galileo, had published an anagram, '. Upon confirming his observations, three years later he revealed it to mean ' (Latin: It aturnis surrounded by a thin, flat, ring, nowhere touching, inclined to the ecliptic). Anagram animation - Nessiteras rhombopteryx=Monster hoax by Sir Peter S

Anagram animation - Nessiteras rhombopteryx=Monster hoax by Sir Peter S

When Robert Hooke discovered

Hooke's law In physics, Hooke's law is an empirical law which states that the force () needed to extend or compress a spring by some distance () scales linearly with respect to that distance—that is, where is a constant factor characteristic of t ...

in 1660, he first published it in anagram form, ', for ' (Latin: as the extension, so the force). In a related use, from 1975, British naturalist Sir Peter Scott coined the scientific term ' (Greek: The monster (or wonder) of

Ness Ness or NESS may refer to: Places Australia * Ness, Wapengo, a heritage-listed natural coastal area in New South Wales United Kingdom * Ness, Cheshire, England, a village * Ness, Lewis, the most northerly area on Lewis, Scotland, UK * Cuspat ...

with the diamond-shaped fin) for the

apocryphal Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...

Loch Ness Monster The Loch Ness Monster ( gd, Uilebheist Loch Nis), affectionately known as Nessie, is a creature in Scottish folklore that is said to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is often described as large, long-necked, and with one or ...

. Shortly afterwards, several London newspapers pointed out that ' anagrams into ''Monster hoax by Sir Peter S''. However, Robert Rines, who previously made two underwater photographs allegedly showing the monster, countered that they can also be arranged into ''Yes, both pix are monsters, R''.

Pseudonyms

Anagrams are connected to pseudonyms, 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 used an anagram of his name in

the Doors The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most controversial and influential rock acts ...

song " L.A. Woman", calling himself "Mr. Mojo Risin'". The use of anagrams and fabricated personal names may be to circumvent restrictions on the use of real names, as happened in the 18th century when Edward Cave wanted to get around restrictions imposed on the reporting of the House of Commons. In a genre such as

farce Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical humor; the use of deliberate absurdity o ...

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...

, anagrams as names may be used for pointed and satiric effect. Pseudonyms adopted by authors are sometimes transposed forms of their names; thus " Calvinus" becomes "Alcuinus" (here V = U) or "

François Rabelais François Rabelais ( , , ; born between 1483 and 1494; died 1553) was a French Renaissance writer, physician, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He is primarily known as a writer of satire, of the grotesque, and of bawdy jokes ...

" = "Alcofribas Nasier". The name "

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his '' nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—e ...

" of François Marie Arouet fits this pattern, and is allowed to be an anagram of "Arouet, l j

une Une is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Eastern Province, part of the department of Cundinamarca. The urban centre is located at an altitude of at a distance of from the capital Bogotá. The municipality borders Chipaque in the nort ...

(U = V, J = I) that is, "Arouet the younger". Other examples include: * " Damon Albarn" = "Dan Abnormal" * " Dave Barry" = "Ray Adverb" * " Arrigo Boito" = "Tobia Gorrio" * " Buckethead" = "Death Cube K" * "

Daniel Clowes Daniel Gillespie Clowes (; born April 14, 1961) is an American cartoonist, graphic novelist, illustrator, and screenwriter. Most of Clowes's work first appeared in '' Eightball'', a solo anthology comic book series. An ''Eightball'' issue typic ...

" = " Enid Coleslaw" * " Siobhán Donaghy" = "Shanghai Nobody" * "

Glen Duncan Glen Duncan is a British author born in 1965 in Bolton, Lancashire, England to an Anglo-Indian family. He studied philosophy and literature at the universities of Lancaster and Exeter. In 1990 Duncan moved to London, where he worked as a book ...

" = "Declan Gunn" * " (Theodor) Geisel" = "(Theo) Le Sieg" * "

Edward Gorey Edward St. John Gorey (February 22, 1925 – April 15, 2000) was an American writer, Tony Award-winning costume designer, and artist, noted for his own illustrated books as well as cover art and illustration for books by other writers. Hi ...

" = "Ogdred Weary", = "Regera Dowdy" or = "E. G. Deadworry" (and others) * " Anna Madrigal" = "A man and a girl" * " Ted Morgan" = "(Sanche) de Gramont" * "

Lorin Morgan-Richards Lorin Morgan-Richards (born February 16, 1975) is an American author, illustrator, and songwriter, primarily known for his young adult fiction and Weird West series ''The Goodbye Family''. In the past, Richards served as the publisher of ''Celt ...

" = "Marcil d'Hirson Garron" * " Vladimir Nabokov" = "Vivian Darkbloom", = "Vivian Bloodmark", = "Blavdak Vinomori", or = "Dorian Vivalkomb" Several of these are "imperfect anagrams", letters having been left out in some cases for the sake of easy pronunciation.

Titles

Anagrams used for titles afford scope for some types of wit. Examples: * Homer Hickam Jr.'s book ''

Rocket Boys ''October Sky '' is the first memoir in a series of four, by American engineer Homer Hickam Jr. originally published in 1998 as ''Rocket Boys''. Later editions were published under the title ''October Sky'' as a tie-in to the 1999 film adaptat ...

'' was adapted into the 1999 film '' October Sky''. * The tapes for the revival of the BBC show ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the ...

'' were labeled with the anagram ''Torchwood'', which later went on to be used as the name for a spin-off show. In multi-episode shows, the program occasionally substitutes the anagram of an actor's name for the actual name to prevent revealing the true identity of the role (for instance, The Master) being played by the actor. * The New Wave band

Missing Persons A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, ...

' best-selling album was called '' Spring Session M''. * Hip-hop artist MF Doom recorded a 2004 album called '' Mm..Food''. *

Brian Eno Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948) is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his contributions to ambient music and work in rock, pop a ...

's album ''Before and After Science'' includes a song entitled "King's Lead Hat", an anagram of "

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.Talki ...

", a band Eno has worked with. * Juan Maria Solare's piano ballad "Jura ser anomalía" (literally "he/she swears to be an anomaly") is an anagram of the composer's full name. His composition for English horn titled "A Dot in Time" is an anagram of "Meditation", which describes the piece. The title of his piano piece that is a homage to Claude Debussy is "Seduce Us Badly". *

Bill Evans William John Evans (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was an American jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, block ch ...

's overdubbed piano elegy for fellow jazz pianist Sonny Clark is titled "N.Y.C.'s No Lark," and another composition, "Re: Person I Knew" is a tribute to his producer, Orrin Keepnews. * The title of Imogen Heap's album '' iMegaphone'' is an anagram of her name. * Progressive rock group Rush published a song off their 1989 album '' Presto'' titled "Anagram (for Mongo)" that makes use of anagrams in every line of their song. * The title of the fifth album by American rock band

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cr ...

, '' El Pintor'', is an anagram of the band's name and also Spanish for "the painter". * Many of the song titles on Aphex Twin's '' ...I Care Because You Do'' are anagrams of either "Aphex Twin", "The Aphex Twin", or "Richard D James". * In

Disney's The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

1964 film ''

Mary Poppins It may refer to: * ''Mary Poppins'' (book series), the original 1934–1988 children's fantasy novels that introduced the character. * Mary Poppins (character), the nanny with magical powers. * ''Mary Poppins'' (film), a 1964 Disney film star ...

'',

Dick Van Dyke Richard Wayne Van Dyke (born December 13, 1925) is an American actor, entertainer and comedian. His award-winning career has spanned seven decades in film, television, and stage. Van Dyke began his career as an entertainer on radio and telev ...

played Mr. Dawes Sr. as the anagram of his name, Navckid Keyd. In the credits, the words unscrambled themselves to reveal his name. * The title of King Crimson's 1982 song ''

Thela Hun Ginjeet "Thela Hun Ginjeet" is a single by the band King Crimson, released in 1981 and on the album ''Discipline'' (1981). The song name is an anagram of "heat in the jungle", which is a reference to crime in the city. (The term "heat" is American slang ...

'' is an anagram of "heat in the jungle". * Two albums released in 2022 by Australian rock band '' King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard'' titled "Made in Timeland" and "Laminated Denim."

Coincidences

In Hebrew, the name " Gernot Zippe" (גרנוט ציפה), the inventor of the

Zippe-type centrifuge The Zippe-type centrifuge is a gas centrifuge designed to enrich the rare fissile isotope uranium-235 (235U) from the mixture of isotopes found in naturally occurring uranium compounds. The isotopic separation is based on the slight difference in ...

, is an anagram of the word "centrifuge" (צנטריפוגה). The sentence "Name is Anu Garg", referring to anagrammer and founder of wordsmith.org

Anu Garg Anu Garg (born April 5, 1967) is an American author and speaker. He is also the founder of Wordsmith.org, an online community comprising word lovers from an estimated 195 countries. His books explore the joy of words. He has authored several book ...

, can be rearranged to spell "Anagram genius".

Games and puzzles

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

Jumble Jumble is a word puzzle with a clue, a drawing illustrating the clue, and a set of words, each of which is “jumbled” by scrambling its letters. A solver reconstructs the words, and then arranges letters at marked positions in the words to sp ...

is a puzzle found in many newspapers in the United States requiring the unscrambling of letters to find the solution.

Cryptic crossword A cryptic crossword is a crossword puzzle in which each clue is a word puzzle. Cryptic crosswords are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they originated, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, and in several Commonwealth nations, includi ...

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 other games and contests involve some element of anagram formation as a basic skill. Some examples: * In

Anagrams An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into ''nag a ram'', also the word ...

, players flip tiles over one at a time and race to take words. They can "steal" each other's words by rearranging the letters and extending the words. * In a version of Scrabble called Clabbers, the name itself is 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 A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and ev ...

'', contestants are given 30 seconds to make the longest word from nine random letters. * In Boggle, players make constrained words from a grid of sixteen random letters, by joining adjacent cubes. * On the British game show '' BrainTeaser'', 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'' is a word game invented by Abraham Nathanson and Rena Nathanson of Cranston, Rhode Island, wherein lettered tiles are used to spell words. Nathanson conceived and developed the idea for the game with the help of his family. T ...

, players place tiles from a pool into crossword-style word arrangements in a race to see who can finish the pool of tiles first.

Ciphers

Multiple anagramming is a technique used to solve some kinds of cryptograms, such as a

permutation cipher In cryptography, a transposition cipher is a method of encryption which scrambles the positions of characters (''transposition'') without changing the characters themselves. Transposition ciphers reorder units of plaintext (typically characters or ...

, a transposition cipher, and the Jefferson disk. Solutions may be computationally found using a Jumble algorithm.

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. The difficulty is that for a word of different letters, there are (

factorial In mathematics, the factorial of a non-negative denoted is the product of all positive integers less than or equal The factorial also equals the product of n with the next smaller factorial: \begin n! &= n \times (n-1) \times (n-2) \ ...

of ) different

permutation In mathematics, a permutation of a set is, loosely speaking, an arrangement of its members into a sequence or linear order, or if the set is already ordered, a rearrangement of its elements. The word "permutation" also refers to the act or pro ...

s and so different anagrams of the word. Anagram dictionaries can also be used. Computer programs, known as "anagram search", "anagram servers", "anagram solvers", offer a much faster route to creating anagrams, and a large number of these programs are available on the Internet. Some programs use the

Anatree An anatree is a data structure designed to solve anagrams. Solving an anagram is the problem of finding a word from a given list of letters. These problems are commonly encountered in word games like Scrabble or in newspaper crossword puzzles. ...

algorithm to compute anagrams efficiently. The

program Program, programme, programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program management, the process of managing several related projects * Time management * Program, a part of planning Arts and entertainment Audio * Programm ...

server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called clients Role * Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers and su ...

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 using a jumble algorithm. Some programs (such as ''Lexpert'') restrict to one-word answers. Many anagram servers (for example
The Words Oracle
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 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 servers attempt to improve on this using statistical techniques that try to combine only words that appear together often. This approach provides only limited success since it fails to recognize ironic and humorous combinations. Some anagrammatists indicate the method they used. Anagrams constructed without the 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 (transposition of letters and/or sounds). It has also been speculated that the English "curd" comes from the Latin ''crudus'' ("raw"). Similarly, the ancient English word for bird was "brid".

Prominent anagrammatists

The French king

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crow ...

had a man named Thomas Billon appointed as his Royal Anagrammatist with an annual salary of 1200 pounds. Among contemporary anagrammers,

, created an Internet Anagram Server in 1994 together with the satirical anagram-based newspaper ''The Anagram Times''. Mike Keith has anagrammed the complete text of '' Moby Dick''. He, along with Richard Brodie, has published ''The Anagrammed Bible'' that includes anagrammed version of many books of the Bible. Popular television personality

Dick Cavett Richard Alva Cavett (; born November 19, 1936) is an American television personality and former talk show host. He appeared regularly on nationally broadcast television in the United States for five decades, from the 1960s through the 2000s. In ...

is known for his anagrams of famous celebrities such as Alec Guinness and Spiro Agnew.

Anagram animation

Animation of the anagram 'Programmed animation = In time, anagrams do romp!'

An animated anagram displays the letters of a word or phrase moving into their new positions.

References

External links

nAsagram
A web app for creating anagrams interactively. {{Authority control