anagram

[an-uh-gram]

See more synonyms for anagram on Thesaurus.com

noun

a word, phrase, or sentence formed from another by rearranging its letters: “Angel” is an anagram of “glean.”
anagrams, (used with a singular verb) a game in which the players build words by transposing and, often, adding letters.

verb (used with object), an·a·grammed, an·a·gram·ming.

to form (the letters of a text) into a secret message by rearranging them.
to rearrange (the letters of a text) so as to discover a secret message.

Origin of anagram

1580–90; probably < Middle French anagramme < New Latin anagramma. See ana-, -gram¹

Related formsan·a·gram·mat·ic

[an-uh-gruh-mat-ik] /ˌæn ə grəˈmæt ɪk/, an·a·gram·mat·i·cal, adjectivean·a·gram·mat·i·cal·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for anagram

game, cipher, logograph

Examples from the Web for anagram

Contemporary Examples of anagram

[From The Daily Beast's own Brian Ries] Hi Ron Paul your name is an anagram for "Our Plan."
Ron Paul Hits Reddit
The Daily Beast
August 22, 2013
Even the title of the film is an anagram of “Truths Denials.”
Shutter Island: Masterpiece or Dud?
Sean Macaulay
February 25, 2010

Historical Examples of anagram

Lucius Barettus is an anagram for the real name Albertus Curtius.
The Story of Eclipses
George Chambers
He announced this also by an anagram, and waited till it should become a crescent, which it did.
Pioneers of Science
Oliver Lodge
He will send me, in response to the demand, as Mlle. Roland,—an anagram of my own name.
The Master of Warlock
George Cary Eggleston
Among the moderns, the French have most cultivated the anagram.
Poetical Ingenuities and Eccentricities
Various
The signature of this letter is an anagram of my ancestor's name.
Passages From the English Notebooks, Volume 2
Nathaniel Hawthorne

British Dictionary definitions for anagram

anagram

noun

a word or phrase the letters of which can be rearranged into another word or phrase

Derived Formsanagrammatic (ˌænəɡrəˈmætɪk) or anagrammatical, adjectiveanagrammatically, adverb

Word Origin for anagram

C16: from New Latin anagramma, shortened from Greek anagrammatismos, from anagrammatizein to transpose letters, from ana- + gramma a letter

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for anagram

transposition of letters in a word so as to form another, 1580s, from French anagramme or Modern Latin anagramma (16c.), both from Greek anagrammatizein "transpose letters," from ana- "up, back" (see ana-) + gramma (genitive grammatos) "letter" (see grammar). Related: Anagrammatical; anagrammatically.