anagram

[an-uh-gram]

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. 2019

Related Words for anagrams

game, cipher, logograph

Examples from the Web for anagrams

Contemporary Examples of anagrams

Upon opening The Warsaw Anagrams, I thought: why am I reading another Holocaust novel?
Must Read Novels
Lucy Scholes, John Wilwol, Randy Rosenthal, Nina MacLaughlin
August 4, 2011

Historical Examples of anagrams

These anagrams, therefore, were either satirical or complimentary.
Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3)
Isaac D'Israeli
It is much like anagrams, this ordering of matter in an 109 essay.
English: Composition and Literature
W. F. (William Franklin) Webster
The prefaces to this are signed with anagrams of George Starkey's name.
Poems of Henry Vaughan, Silurist, Volume II
Henry Vaughan
Then that must have been a masquerade, that other time—all that mumbo-jumbo with the Anagrams.
And Then the Town Took Off
Richard Wilson
There is even a reference to a bibliographer of books of anagrams.
A History of Bibliographies of Bibliographies
Archer Taylor

British Dictionary definitions for anagrams

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 anagrams

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.