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{{short description|Rearrangement of letters in a word or phrase}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
[[File:Anagram Listen = Silent.gif|thumb|Animation for the anagram "Listen = Silent"]]

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.<ref>{{cite web|title=anagram|website=[[CollinsDictionary.com]]|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/anagram|publisher=[[HarperCollins Publishers]]|access-date=22 September 2017}}</ref> For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into the phrase "nag a ram"; which is an [[Easter egg (media)|Easter egg]] suggestion in [[Google]] after searching for the word "anagram".<ref>{{cite web|title=Nag A Ram|url=https://www.mediaite.com/online/nag-a-ram-google-jokes-with-search-results-anagram|publisher=[[Mediaite]]|access-date=22 July 2023}}</ref>

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",<ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/anagrammatist Anagrammatist], ''[[Dictionary.com]]''. Retrieved on 12 August 2008.</ref> and the goal of a serious or skilled anagrammatist is to produce anagrams that reflect or comment on their subject.

==Examples==
[[File:Anagram President Obama = a baptism redone.gif|thumb|An animation for the anagram "[[Barack Obama|President Obama]] = [[Rebaptism|a baptism redone]]"]]
Anagrams may be created as a commentary on the subject. They may be a parody, a criticism or satire. For example:
* "[[The New York Times|New York Times]]" = "[[Infinite monkey theorem|monkeys write]]"
* "[[Church of Scientology]]" = "rich-chosen goofy cult"
* "[[McDonald's]] restaurants" = "[[Uncle Sam]]'s standard rot"

An anagram may also be a synonym of the original word or phrase. For example:
* "evil" = "vile"
* "a [[gentleman]]" = "elegant man"
* "silent" = "[[Listening|listen]]"
* "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".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | title=antigram |  dictionary=Definitions.net | url=https://www.definitions.net/definition/antigram | access-date=31 July 2019}}</ref> For example:
* "restful" = "fluster"
* "[[Academic dishonesty|cheater]]" = "[[teacher]]"
* "[[funeral]]" = "real fun"
* "[[adultery]]" = "true lady"
* "[[45 (number)|forty five]]" = "over [[50 (number)|fifty]]"
* "[[Santa Claus|Santa]]" = "[[Satan]]"

They can sometimes change from a proper noun or personal name into an appropriate sentence:
* "[[William Shakespeare]]" = "I am a weakish speller"
* "[[Marie Curie|Madam Curie]]" = "[[Radium]] came"
* "[[George W. Bush|George Bush]]" = "He bugs [[Al Gore|Gore]]"
* "[[Lord Voldemort|Tom Marvolo Riddle]]" = "[[Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets|I am Lord Voldemort]]"
* "[[Jim Morrison]]" = "[[L.A. Woman (song)|Mr Mojo Risin]]"<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mr. Mojo Risin', Mr. Mojo Risin' / Mr. Mojo Risin', Mr. Mojo Risin' |url=https://genius.com/37267/The-doors-la-woman/Mr-mojo-risin-mr-mojo-risin-mr-mojo-risin-mr-mojo-risin |access-date=2025-07-19 |website=Genius}}</ref>
* "[[Morse code|The Morse code]]" = "Here come dots"

They can change [[part of speech]], such as the adjective "silent" to the verb "listen".

"Anagrams" itself can be anagrammatized as ''"Ars magna"'' (Latin, 'the great art').<ref>{{cite web |title=Ars Magna |url=https://www.pbs.org/pov/films/arsmagna/|website=[[PBS]] |access-date=9 January 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090622024806/http://www.pbs.org/pov/arsmagna/ |archive-date=22 June 2009 |date=1 July 2008 |quote=This Emmy-nominated short enters the obsessive and fascinating world of anagrams.}} ''[Original article's link to video is dead, but link in archived article works.]''</ref>

==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.<ref>''[https://archive.org/details/ofanagramsmonogr00wheauoft Of Anagrams]'', By H.B. Wheatley pg. 72, printed 1862 T. & W. Boone, New Bond Street, London</ref>
They were popular throughout Europe during the [[Middle Ages]], for example with the poet and composer [[Guillaume de Machaut]].<ref>[http://www.hoasm.org/IID/Machaut.html Guillaume de Machaut], "Here of a Sunday Morning", [[WBAI]]</ref> They are said to date back at least to the Greek poet [[Lycophron]], in the third century BCE; but this relies on an account of Lycophron given by [[John Tzetzes]] in the 12th century.<ref>{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Lycophron |volume=17 |page=153 }}</ref>

In the [[Talmud]]ic and [[Midrash]]ic literature, anagrams were used to [[Talmudical hermeneutics|interpret]] the [[Hebrew Bible]], notably by [[Eleazar of Modi'im]]. Later, [[Kabbalah|Kabbalists]] took this up with enthusiasm, calling anagrams [[temurah (Kabbalah)|''temurah'']].<ref>Isaac Broydé, "Anagram " in ''Jewish Encyclopedia'', 1906 [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1450-anagram full text]</ref>

Anagrams in [[Latin language|Latin]] were considered witty over many centuries. ''Est vir qui adest'', explained below, was cited as the example in [[Samuel Johnson]]'s ''[[A Dictionary of the English Language]]''. They became hugely popular in the [[early modern period]], especially in Germany.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web | url=https://medium.com/in-medias-res/secrets-of-a-lost-art-part-1-latin-anagrams-aa05739e5400 |title = Secrets of a Lost Art, part 1: Latin Anagrams - in Medias Res|date = 6 May 2018}}</ref>

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]]'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.<ref name="auto"/> Two examples are the change of ''[[Ave Maria]], gratia plena, Dominus tecum'' (Latin: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord [is] with you) into ''Virgo serena, pia, munda et immaculata'' (Latin: Serene [[virginity of Mary|virgin]], pious, clean and [[Immaculate Conception|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]]: ''Societas Jesu'' turned into ''Vitiosa seces'' (Latin: Cut off the wicked things). Puttenham, in the time of [[Elizabeth I]], 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 [[Aspirated consonant|aspiration]] only and no letter", and that Z in [[Zeta|Greek]] or Hebrew is a mere SS. The rules were not completely fixed in the 17th century. [[William Camden]] in his ''Remains'' commented, singling out some letters—[[Æ]], K, W, and Z—not found in the classical [[Roman alphabet]]:<ref>Cited in Henry Benjamin Wheatley, ''Of anagrams: a monograph treating of their history'' (1862); [https://archive.org/details/ofanagramsmonogr00wheauoft online text.]</ref>

{{Blockquote|The precise in this practice strictly observing all the parts of the definition, are only bold with H either in omitting or retaining it, for that it cannot challenge the right of a letter. But the Licentiats somewhat licentiously, lest they should prejudice poetical liberty, will pardon themselves for doubling or rejecting a letter, if the sence fall aptly, and  "think it no injury to use E for Æ; V for W; S for Z, and C for K, and contrariwise.|William Camden|''Remains''}}

===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, 1st Viscount Brackley|Thomas Egerton]] was praised through the anagram ''gestat honorem'' ('he carries honor'); the physician [[George Ent]] took the anagrammatic motto ''genio surget'' ('he rises through spirit/genius'), which requires his first name as ''Georgius''.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|editor-last=Stephen|editor-first=Leslie|editor-link=Leslie Stephen|dictionary=[[Dictionary of National Biography]]|title=ENT, SIR GEORGE, M.D. (1604–1689)|url={{google books|id=_OPQAAAAMAAJ&hl|page=377|plainurl=yes}}|access-date=15 September 2019|date=1889|edition=1st|publisher=[[Smith, Elder & Co.]]|volume=XVII|page=377}}</ref> [[James I of England|James I's]] courtiers discovered in "James Stuart" "a just master", and converted "Charles James Stuart" into "Claims [[King Arthur|Arthur]]'s [[Arthur's Seat|seat]]" (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.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|editor-last=Lee|editor-first=Sidney|editor-link=Sidney Lee|dictionary=[[Dictionary of National Biography]]|title=QUIN, WALTER (1575?–1634?)|url={{Google books|id=NMk9Mc0QnxwC&pg|page=111|plainurl=yes}}|access-date=21 September 2019|edition=1st|date=1896|publisher=[[Smith, Elder & Co.]]|volume=XLVII|page=111}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.earlystuartlibels.net/htdocs/overbury_murder_section/H21.html|title=Anagram on Frances Howard- The Overbury Murder Scandal (1615-1616)|website=www.earlystuartlibels.net}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.earlystuartlibels.net/htdocs/overbury_murder_section/H22.html|title=Anagram on Sir Thomas Overbury- The Overbury Murder Scandal (1615-1616)|website=www.earlystuartlibels.net}}</ref>

[[William Drummond of Hawthornden]], 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.<ref>[[Henry Benjamin Wheatley]], ''On Anagrams'' (1862), p. 58.</ref> [[William Camden]]<ref>''Remains,'' 7th ed., 1674.</ref> 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." [[John Dryden|Dryden]] in ''[[MacFlecknoe]]'' disdainfully called the pastime the "torturing of one poor word ten thousand ways".<ref>
<poem>
Thy genius calls thee not to purchase fame
In keen iambics, but mild anagram:
Leave writing plays, and choose for thy command
Some peaceful province in acrostic land.
There thou may'st wings display and altars raise,
And torture one poor word ten thousand ways.
</poem></ref>

[[Eleanor Davies (poet)|"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"<ref>{{Cite news |date=1914-07-10 |title=A Victim Of Anagram |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129671364 |access-date=2025-07-27 |work=Trove}}</ref> and to have been laughed out of court by another anagram submitted by [[Sir John Lambe]], the [[Dean of Arches|dean of the Arches]], "Dame Eleanor Davies", "Never soe mad a ladie".<ref>''Oxford Book of Word Games''</ref><ref>[[Hugh Trevor-Roper]], ''Archbishop Laud'' (2000), p. 146.</ref>

An example from France was a flattering anagram for [[Cardinal Richelieu]], comparing him to [[Hercules]] 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").<ref>H. W. van Helsdingen, ''Notes on Two Sheets of Sketches by Nicolas Poussin for the Long Gallery of the Louvre'', Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, Vol. 5, No. 3/4 (1971), pp. 172–184.</ref>

===Modern period===
Examples from the 19th century are the transposition of "[[Horatio Nelson]]" into ''Honor est a Nilo'' (Latin: Honor is from the [[Battle of the Nile|Nile]]); and of "[[Florence Nightingale]]" into "Flit on, cheering angel".<ref>{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Anagram |volume=1 |page=910}}</ref> The Victorian love of anagramming as recreation is alluded to by the mathematician [[Augustus De Morgan]]<ref>In his ''[[A Budget of Paradoxes]]'', p. 82.</ref> 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 T. Graves|John Thomas Graves]] was prolific, and a manuscript with over 2,800 has been preserved.<ref>Robert Edoward Moritz, ''On Mathematics and Mathematicians'' (2007), p. 151.</ref><ref>Anna Stirling, ''William De Morgan and His Wife'' (1922) p. 64.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cats/13/3491.htm |title=AIM25 home page |access-date=6 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606051531/http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cats/13/3491.htm |archive-date=6 June 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

With the advent of [[surrealism]] as a poetic movement, anagrams regained the artistic respect they had had in the [[Baroque period]]. The German poet [[Unica Zürn]], who made extensive use of anagram techniques, came to regard obsession with anagrams as a "dangerous fever", because it created isolation of the author.<ref>Friederike Ursula Eigler, Susanne Kord, The Feminist Encyclopedia of German Literature (1997), pp. 14–5.</ref> The surrealist leader [[André Breton]] coined the anagram ''Avida Dollars'' for [[Salvador Dalí]], 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.<ref name = Java>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.</ref>

===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 Galilei|Galileo]] used ''{{not a typo|smaismrmilmepoetaleumibunenugttauiras}}'' for ''{{lang|la|Altissimum planetam tergeminum observavi}}'' (Latin: I have observed the most distant planet to have a triple form) for discovering the [[rings of Saturn]] in 1610.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Miner|first=Ellis D.|author2=Wessen, Randii R.|author3=Cuzzi, Jeffrey N.|chapter=The scientific significance of planetary ring systems|title=Planetary Ring Systems|series=Springer Praxis Books in Space Exploration|publisher=Praxis|year=2007|pages=[https://archive.org/details/planetaryringsys0000mine/page/1 1–16]|doi=10.1007/978-0-387-73981-6_1|isbn=978-0-387-34177-4|url=https://archive.org/details/planetaryringsys0000mine/page/1}}</ref><ref>
{{cite web|url=http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath151/kmath151.htm|title=Galileo's Anagrams and the Moons of Mars|access-date=2009-03-16|work=Math Pages: History}}</ref> Galileo announced his discovery that [[Venus]] had [[Moon phase|phases]] like the Moon in the form ''{{lang|la|Haec immatura a me iam frustra leguntur oy}}'' (Latin: These immature ones have already been read in vain by me -oy), that is, when rearranged, ''{{lang|la|Cynthiae figuras aemulatur Mater Amorum}}'' (Latin: The Mother of Loves [= Venus] imitates the figures of [[Artemis|Cynthia]] [= the moon]). In both cases, [[Johannes Kepler]] had solved the anagrams incorrectly, assuming they were talking about the [[Moons of Mars]] (''{{lang|la|Salve, umbistineum geminatum Martia proles}}'') and a [[Great Red Spot|red spot on Jupiter]] (''{{lang|la|Macula rufa in Jove est gyratur mathem}}''), respectively.<ref>{{cite web |title=Galileo, Kepler, & Two Anagrams: Two Wrong Solutions Turn into Two Correct Solutions |url=http://judgestarling.tumblr.com/post/62652246148/galileo-kepler-two-anagrams-two-wrong |website=Judge Starling}}</ref> By coincidence, he turned out to be right about the actual objects existing.

In 1656, [[Christiaan Huygens]], 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, ''{{not a typo|aaaaaaacccccdeeeeeghiiiiiiillllmmnnnnnnnnnooooppqrrstttttuuuuu}}''. Upon confirming his observations, three years later he revealed it to mean ''{{lang|la|Annulo cingitur, tenui, plano, nusquam coherente, ad eclipticam inclinato}}'' (Latin: It [Saturn] is surrounded by a thin, flat, ring, nowhere touching, inclined to the ecliptic).<ref>{{cite journal|last=Howard |first=N. |year=2004 |title=Rings and Anagrams: Huygens's System of Saturn |journal=The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America |volume=98 |number=4 |pages=477–510 |doi=10.1086/pbsa.98.4.24295740}}</ref>

When [[Robert Hooke]] discovered [[Hooke's law]] in 1660, he first published it in anagram form, ''{{not a typo|ceiiinosssttuv}}'', for ''{{lang|la|ut tensio, sic vis}}'' (Latin: as the extension, so the force).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gjertsen |first1=Derek |title=The Newton Handbook |date=1986 |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul |isbn=9780710202796 |page=16}}</ref>

===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]] song "[[L.A. Woman (song)|L.A. Woman]]", calling himself "Mr. Mojo Risin'".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01278z4 |title=Mr Mojo Risin' |date= June 29, 2011 |work=[[BBC Radio 2]] |access-date=March 17, 2021}}</ref> 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 of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/paper/pooleyj.html |title=Institute of Historical Research (IHR) home page |access-date=7 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930043325/http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/paper/pooleyj.html |archive-date=30 September 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In a genre such as [[farce]] or [[parody]], anagrams as names may be used for pointed and satiric effect.

Pseudonyms adopted by authors are sometimes transposed forms of their names; thus "[[John Calvin|Calvinus]]" becomes "Alcuinus" (here V = U) or "[[François Rabelais]]" = "Alcofribas Nasier". The name "[[Voltaire]]" of François Marie Arouet fits this pattern, and is allowed to be an anagram of "Arouet, l[e] j[eune]" (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]]" = "[[Enid Coleslaw]]"
* "Marguerite (de) Crayencour" = "[[Marguerite Yourcenar]]"
* "[[Siobhán Donaghy]]" = "Shanghai Nobody"
* "[[Glen Duncan]]" = "Declan Gunn"<ref>[[I, Lucifer (Glen Duncan)]]</ref>
* "[[Dr. Seuss|(Theodor) Geisel]]" = "(Theo) Le Sieg"
* "[[Edward Gorey]]" = "Ogdred Weary", = "Regera Dowdy" or = "E. G. Deadworry" (and others)
* "[[Tales of the City|Anna Madrigal]]" = "A man and a girl"
* "[[Ted Morgan (writer)|Ted Morgan]]" = "(Sanche) de Gramont"
* "[[Lorin Morgan-Richards]]" = "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]]'s book ''[[Rocket Boys]]'' was adapted into the 1999 film ''[[October Sky]]''.<ref name="CB">{{cite web|url=http://criminalbrief.com/?p=9217|title=Anagrams|last=Lundin|first=Leigh|date=2009-11-29|work=Word Play|publisher=Criminal Brief}}</ref>
* The tapes for the revival of the [[BBC]] show ''[[Doctor Who]]'' were labeled with the anagram ''Torchwood'', which later went on to be used as the name for a [[Torchwood|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 (band)|Missing Persons]]' best-selling album was called ''[[Spring Session M]]''.
* Hip-hop artist [[MF Doom]] recorded a 2004 album called ''[[Mm..Food]]''.
* [[Brian Eno]]'s album ''Before and After Science'' includes a song entitled "King's Lead Hat", an anagram of "[[Talking Heads]]", 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]]'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 (band)|Rush]] published a song on their 1989 album ''[[Presto (album)|Presto]]'' titled "Anagram (for Mongo)" that makes use of anagrams in every line of the song.
* The title of the fifth album by American rock band [[Interpol (band)|Interpol]], ''[[El Pintor (Interpol album)|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 [[The Walt Disney Company|Disney's]] 1964 film ''[[Mary Poppins (film)|Mary Poppins]]'', [[Dick Van Dyke]] 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]]'' 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]], is an anagram of the word "centrifuge" (צנטריפוגה).

The sentence "Name is Anu Garg", referring to anagrammer and founder of wordsmith.org [[Anu Garg]], can be rearranged to spell "Anagram genius".<ref>{{cite web |title=The Anagram Hall of Fame |url=https://wordsmith.org/anagram/hof.html |website=Wordsmith.org |access-date=2 March 2021}}</ref>

===Games and puzzles===
[[File:Boggle (4039402557).jpg|thumb|The game of ''Boggle'']]
Anagrams are in themselves a recreational activity, but they also make up part of many other games, puzzles and game shows. The [[Jumble]] is a puzzle found in many newspapers in the United States requiring the unscrambling of letters to find the solution. [[Cryptic crossword]] 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 (game)|Anagrams]], 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 (game show)|Countdown]]'', 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]], players place tiles from a pool into [[Crossword|crossword-style]] word arrangements in a race to see who can finish the pool of tiles first.

===Ciphers===<!-- This section  heading is linked to in [[Rasterschlüssel 44]] if you change it, please change it their as well. -->
Multiple anagramming is a technique used to solve some kinds of cryptograms, such as a [[permutation cipher]], a [[transposition cipher]], and the [[Jefferson disk]].<ref>[http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/documents/cryptdict/page55.htm Bletchley Park Cryptographic Dictionary]. Codesandciphers.org.uk. Retrieved on 2014-05-12.</ref> 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 {{mvar|n}} different letters, there are {{math|''n''!}} ([[factorial]] of {{mvar|n}}) different [[permutation]]s and so {{math|''n''! − 1}} different anagrams of the word. [[Anagram dictionary|Anagram dictionaries]] can also be used. Computer programs, known as "anagram search", "anagram servers", and "anagram solvers", among other names, offer a much faster route to creating anagrams, and a large number of these programs are available on the Internet.<ref>{{cite web |title=anagram search engine|url=https://aigram.org/|access-date=11 June 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=internet anagram server| url=https://wordsmith.org/anagram/|access-date=11 June 2021}}</ref> Some programs use the [[Anatree]] algorithm to compute anagrams efficiently.

The [[Computer program|program]] or [[Server (computing)|server]] 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, [http://findwords.online4me.com 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 longue|chaise lounge]]" by [[metathesis (linguistics)|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".

==Notable anagrammatists==
The French king [[Louis XIII]] had a man named [[Thomas Billon]] appointed as his Royal Anagrammatist with an annual salary of 1,200 [[French livre|livres]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Southey|first=Robert|chapter=CLXXIX|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vIxUAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA467|title=The Doctor, Etc|publisher=Longman, Greens, and Co.|year=1865|pages=467}}</ref> Among contemporary anagrammers, [[Anu Garg]], 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]]''.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.anagrammy.com/literary/mkeith/poems-dom21.html |title = Anagram by Mike Keith}}</ref> He, along with Richard Brodie, has published ''The Anagrammed Bible'' that includes anagrammed version of many books of the Bible.<ref>{{cite book| title = The Anagrammed Bible: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon: Keith, Michael, Brodie, Richard: 9780963009722: Amazon.com: Books| isbn = 0963009729}}</ref> Popular television personality [[Dick Cavett]] is known for his anagrams of famous celebrities such as Alec Guinness and Spiro Agnew.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/04/style/dick-cavett-interview.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/04/style/dick-cavett-interview.html |archive-date=2022-01-01 |url-access=limited|title=Dick Cavett's Best Outtakes|last=Williams|first=Alex|date=2018-08-04|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-12-04|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Acronym]]
* [[Ambigram]]
* [[Anagrammatic poem]]
* [[Anagrams (game)|Anagrams]], a board game
* [[Ananym]]
* [[Blanagram]]
* [[Constrained writing]]
* [[Isogram]]
* [[Letter bank]]
* [[Lipogram]]
* [[List of geographic anagrams and ananyms]]
* [[List of taxa named by anagrams]]
* [[London Underground anagram map]]
* [[Palindrome]]
* [[Pangram]]
* [[Rebus]]
* [[Sator Square]] 
* [[Spoonerism]]
* [[Tautonym]]
* [[Word play]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [[Henry Benjamin Wheatley]]. ''Of Anagrams: A Monograph Treating of Their History from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time.'' Williams & Norgate, 1862.
* ''[[Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics]]''.  Greenwood Periodicals et al., 1968–. {{ISSN|0043-7980}}.
* [[Howard W. Bergerson]]. ''[[Palindromes and Anagrams]]''.  Dover Publications, 1973. {{ISBN|978-0486206646}}.

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|anagram}}
* [https://www.anagramthis.com AnagramThis] - An ad-free online anagram creator

{{Hidden messages}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Anagrams| ]]