I Swear English › Vocabulary A–Z › Anagram
What does ‘Anagram’ mean?
Related forms: Language Learning:
An anagram is a word or phrase that has had the letters rearranged to make another word or phrase that uses all the letters of the original. It is very common to use anagrams as crossword clues in British newspapers. Anagrams are very ancient and probably originated from people looking for the inner meaning of words or names. They were very common in ancient Rome. Today they are a hobby or a pastime. A good anagram should be related to some quality or property of the original word or phrase.
“If you rearrange the letters of "Margaret Thatcher" you get "That great charmer."”.
“If you rearrange "Dormitory" you get "Dirty Room"”.
Watch: ‘Anagram’ explained
Video transcript
A is for Anagram. Anagram is a noun. An anagram, this is where you take the letters of a word and you make another word, or another two or three words using all the letters of the original word. OK. So, for example: Net, n-e-t is an anagram of ten, t-e-n. OK, net and ten, they're anagrams. Anagrams are very frequently used er... as clues, as questions for crossword puzzles. If you are very clever you can make an anagram out of a word or a name, that could describe some characteristic of the original thing. OK. So, A is for anagram. A word with the letters rearranged to make another word or words. So, I'll see you in another video. Thanks for watching.