What Are Anagrams? Definition and Examples

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Anagrams are a form of wordplay where the letters of a word or phrase (the “subject”) are rearranged to create a new word or phrase. The resulting rearrangement must consist of real words; otherwise, they’re just gibberish.

The goal of creating anagrams is to use all the original letters only once and create an anagram that is related to its subject. For example, a famous anagram for “William Shakespeare” is “I am a weakish speller.”

The resulting anagram is related to the Bard because, by today’s standards, Shakespeare would appear to be a bad speller. To be fair though, grammar and spelling had not yet been standardized during his era.

Types of Anagrams by Format

Here are four different kinds of anagrams distinguished by format:

1. Word to word

In word-to-word anagrams, a word is reshuffled to form another word:

  • Admirer — Married
  • Medical — Claimed
  • Listen — Silent
  • Caller — Recall

2. Word to phrase

In word-to-phrase anagrams, a word is turned into a phrase:

  • Mother-in-law — woman Hitler
  • Dormitory — Dirty room
  • Astronomer — Moon starer
  • Presbyterian — Best in prayer

3. Phrase to Phrase

In phrase-to-phrase anagrams, a phrase is rearranged into another phrase:

  • Eleven plus two — Twelve plus one
  • A decimal point — I’m a dot in place
  • Vacation time — I am not active
  • The countryside — No City Dust Here

4. Phrase to Word

In phrase-to-word anagrams, the letters of a phrase are repositioned into a word:

  • Life’s aim — Families
  • Voices rant on — Conversation
  • Ill fed — Filled
  • Amen Stories — Monasteries

Types of Anagrams by Function

Here are five more different kinds of anagrams, distinguished by how they’re used:

1. Commentary

An anagram can be used to parody, satirize, or critique its subject:

  • The American fast-food giant McDonald’s = Digest a ton of fat and random chemicals
  • The Artist formerly known as ‘Prince’ — No first-rate workmanship recently!
  • Rap music — Is, um… crap
  • Adolf Hitler — Heil, old fart!

2. Synonyms

Sometimes an anagram can mean the same thing as its subject. This is called a synanagram.

  • Evil — Vile
  • Statement — Testament
  • Deductions — Discounted
  • Angered — Enraged

3. Antonyms

An anagram can also mean the opposite of its original word. This is called an antigram.

  • Funeral — Real fun
  • Forty-five — Over Fifty
  • Violence — Nice love
  • Earliest — Arise late

4. Coherent phrases or sentences

Some anagrams can be placed together with their subjects to create a coherent and meaningful phrase or sentence. These are called pairagrams.

  • Elvis — Lives
  • The eyes — They see
  • Outer — Route
  • For the evil that men do — doth live on after them.

5. Names

Anagrams are also commonly used to create pseudonyms or create sentences from proper names:

  • Jim Morrison — Mr. Mojo Risin
  • Damon Albarn — Dan Abnormal
  • Marie Curie — Radium comes
  • Harley Davidson Motorcycles — Very costly old road machines

Anagrams in Literature

Writers often use anagrams to create excitement in their works. By using anagrams, they add a little interactive fun in their works where readers can figure out the anagram on their own.

Here are a few famous instances of anagrams being used in literature:

  • In the Harry Potter series, it is revealed that Voldemort’s name is actually an anagram of his given name: “Tom Marvolo Riddle” — “I am Lord Voldemort”
  • In Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita, the character “Vivian Darkbloom” is an anagram of the author’s full name.
  • In the Da Vinci Code, the murdered curator of the Louvre writes an inscription using his blood. When decoded, it points to the next clue of the mystery:

“O, Draconian devil!” = Leonardo Da Vinci

“Oh, lame saint!” = The Mona Lisa

“So dark the con of Man” = Madonna of the Rocks

  • In Gulliver’s Travels, Gulliver visits Tribnia, which is called Langden by its citizens. Both are anagrams for Britain and England, respectively.
  • In Hamlet, the titular character’s name is an anagram of “Amleth”, the name of a historical danish prince whose legend Shakespeare based his play on.

Anagram Solvers

Thanks to digital technology, there are now programs that can analyze all the possible combinations of letters within a certain word or phrase, and compare them to a dictionary.

Here are some of the best ones I’ve found:

You only need to type in a series of letters and click on a button to activate the program. A list of all the possible combinations will be available in just a few moments.

Creating Anagrams

As a challenge, try to create anagrams that directly relate to their subjects. Not only will it test your mental skills more, but it’ll make the end result more satisfying.

  • The earthquakes — The queer shakes
  • Builder — Rebuild
  • The theorem of Pythagoras — He has that geometry proof

But if you’re a beginner, it’s totally fine to start with simple anagrams. After all, creating anagrams is mainly for fun and and a bit of mental exercise.

  • Dusty — Study
  • Cider — Cried
  • Night — Thing

To give you some inspiration, and to show you the heights of what creating anagrams can reach, check out this famous anagram by Cory Calhoun. The subject is taken from a famous soliloquy in Hamlet:

  • Original: To be or not to be: that is the question, whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
  • Calhoun’s Anagram: In one of the Bard’s best-thought-of tragedies, our insistent hero, Hamlet, queries on two fronts about how life turns rotten.

The Importance of Anagrams

Creating or solving anagrams is a great way to exercise your brain and keep it sharp. By giving you a limited amount of letters to work with, you start to analyze every possible way they can be combined. This helps you expand your own vocabulary while improving your analyzation skills.

They’re also fun puzzles that utilize wit and humor to add a layer of excitement and mystery to a literary work. In adding that extra layer, you can encourage readers to dive deeper into your story as they seek its true meaning.

What are your favorite anagrams? Share them in the comments below!

 

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