Do you know what an anagram is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on anagram, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!
-
Kevin
-
December 27, 2021
-
Common Questions
Your writing, at its best
Compose bold, clear, mistake-free, writing with Grammarly's AI-powered writing assistant
What is an anagram?
According to Collins English Dictionary, an anagram (ˈænəˌɡræm) is a word or phrase that can have its letters rearranged to spell another word or phrase different from the original word. Using an anagram solver, anagram finder, anagram maker, anagrammer, anagram generators or a word finder is a fun way to play word games with anagrams. This is most popularly known by fans of the Harry Potter series in which Lord Voldemort’s full name is actually an anagram of his birth name. To figure out anagrams for words, try starting out with common prefixes that start words ─ ab, ad, dis, de, ex, re, sub, un and common suffixes that end words ─ ed, er, ing, ism, ly, ment, ness, tion. You will find a surprising number of options with the array of letters from the original term. This can be helpful for crosswords or the use of acronyms in word play games like Scrabble and Boggle.Some of these games might have the option to make lucrative moves in a confusing way with a single collection of tiles on open spaces to score the highest points. Try to make a discovery with a new word today!
According to Your Dictionary, the use of anagrams can be traced back to the time of the ancient Greeks, and were used to find the hidden and mystical meaning in names. Even the ancient Greeks, as far back as the 4th century BC, liked to play around with anagrams. The first person to do so was Greek poet Lycophron. This C16 Middle Ages word comes from the middle French anagramme, New Latin anagramma, shortened from Greek anagrammatismos, from anagrammatizein and ana/gramma. According to Daily Writing Tips, scientists of the 17th century transposed their discoveries into Latin anagrams. In 1610, after viewing Saturn through a telescope, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei mailed his colleagues the anagram smaismrmilmepoetaleumibunenugttauiras which means Altissimum planetam tergeminum observavi” or “I have observed the most distant planet to have a triple form.” Christiaan Huygens confirmed this with a better telescope.
What are examples of anagrams?
Anagrams can be used in many different contexts in the English language. Trying to use a word or grammatical technique in a sentence is one of the best ways to memorize what it is, but you can also try making flashcards or quizzes that test your knowledge. Try using this term of the day in a sentence today! Below are a couple of examples of anagrams that can help get you started incorporating this tool into your everyday use. Take a look at these anagram examples from Your Dictionary and see how many you can identify the anagram in!
- Astronomer = Moon starer
- Hamlet = Amleth
- The eyes = They see
- Punishments = Nine thumps
- Ronald Reagan = A darn long era
- Bad credit = debit card
- Cat = Act
- Conversation = Voices rant on
- Fourth of July = Joyful Fourth
- Las Vegas = Salvages
- Damon Albarn = Dan Abnormal
- Clint Eastwood = Old West action
- Slot machines = Cash lost in me
- So dark the con of man = Madonna of the Rocks
- Save = Vase
- Statue of Liberty = Built to stay free
- Paris = Pairs
- Angel = Glean
- Bored = Robed
- Night = Thing
- Jim Morrison = Mr. Mojo Risin’
- Brag = Grab
- Elvis = Lives
- Madonna Louise Ciccone = One cool dance musician
- The Morse Code = Here come dots
- Bart (as in Bart Simpson) = Brat
- State = Taste
- Inch = Chin
- Dusty = Study
- Denver = Nerved
- Tar = Rat
- Cider = Cried
- George Bush = He bugs Gore
- Eleven plus two = Twelve plus one
- Oh, lame saint = The Mona Lisa
- Listen = Silent
- O, Draconian devil = Leonardo da Vinci
- San Diego = Diagnose
- Funeral = Real fun
- Stressed = Desserts
- School master = The classroom
- Dormitory = Dirty room
- A gentleman = Elegant man
- Elbow = Below
- Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort
- Arc = Car
What are other literary techniques and devices?
There are many different literary and grammatical techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these terms because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of grammatical devices from OED and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you.
- number
- collective noun
- prepositional object
- indicative
- anticipatory
- apodosis and protasis
- past tense
- conjunction (conj.)
- element
- infinitive
- noun (n.)
- declarative
- cataphoric
- dual
- positive
- accusative
- to-infinitive
- article
- progressive
- passive infinitive
- periphrasis | periphrastic
- personal pronoun
- stem
- anaphoric
- modal verb | modal auxiliary verb | modal auxiliary
- adverbial | adverbially
- feminine
- nominal relative | nominal relative clause
- gender
- attributive
- part of speech
- sentence adverb |sentence adverbial
- comparative
- demonstrative
- collocation | collocate
- singular
- intransitive
- interrogative
- appositive
- subordinate clause
- main clause
- phrasal verb
- noun phrase
- prepositional phrase
- special use
- gerund
- subjective
- anagram
- perfect
- clause
- indirect object
- object | direct object | indirect object
- prefix
- finite
- intensifier
- auxiliary verb | auxiliary
- indirect passive
- similative
- subject
- main verb
- possessive
- determiner
- parenthetical | parenthetically
- adverb (adv.)
- active
- case
- verbal noun
- predicative
- genitive
- participial adjective
- possessive pronoun
- pleonasm | pleonastic
- bare infinitive
- anagram
- vocative
- common noun
- combination
- first person
- second person
- count noun
- postmodify | postmodifier
- preposition (prep.)
- direct speech
- relative
- prepositional passive
- cognate object
- past participle
- ellipsis | elliptical
- neuter
- copular verb | copula
- present tense
- indirect question
- pro-form
- direct question
- interjection
- apposition
- optative
- modify | modifier
- conditional
- direct object
- abstract
- indefinite
- concrete
- parasynthetic
- agent noun
- tense
- verb (v.)
- objective
- participle | past participle | present participle
- head
- antecedent
- premodify | premodifier
- passive
- mass noun
- base form
- filler
- phrase (phr.)
- pronoun (pron.)
- double object
- protasis
- adjective
- imperative (imper.)
- subjunctive
- definite article
- indirect speech
- transitive
- superlative
- complementary
- locative
- masculine
- reflexive
- agree | agreement
- unmarked genitive
- present participle
- complement
- quasi-
- impersonal (impers.)
- proper noun | proper name
- zero
- simple
- causative
- third-person
- non-finite
- combining form (comb. form)
- possessive adjective
- that-clause
- construction
- morpheme
- absolute (absol.)
- plural
- nominative
- inflection | inflected | inflectional
- dative
- instrumental
- mood
- non-referential
- construed (const., constr.)
- compound | compounding
- person
Overall, an anagram is a word whose particular letters can be rearranged to spell another word or phrase. Word games players of popular word games like a crossword game might use word anagram aid or phrase unscrambler to get the highest scoring words in offline games. There are many computer programs, word unscrambler services, anagram servers, and anagram creator today that can make pseudonyms like Wordscraper, Scrabulous, and Lexulous.
Sources:
