Anagram

An anagram (Greek ana- = "back" or "again", and graphein = "to write") is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce other words, using all the original letters exactly once. Anagrams are often expressed in the form of an equation, with the equals symbol (=) separating the original subject and the resulting anagram. ?Earth = heart? is an example of a simple anagram expressed so. In a more advanced, sophisticated form of anagramming, the aim is to ?discover? a result that possesses linguistic meaning which comments on the original subject in a humorous or ironic way; e.g., Roll in the hay = Thrill a honey (discovered by Sir Anthony Fortesque-Crafter). When the subject and the resulting anagram form a complete sentence, a tilde (~) is used instead of an equal sign; e.g., Semolina ~ is no meal.

Crosswords

Cryptic crossword puzzles frequently use anagrammatic clues, usually indicating that they are anagrams by the inclusion of a word like "confused" or "in disarray". An example would be Businessman bursts 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.

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What is the most anagrammable name on record? There must be few names as deliciously workable as that of "Augustus de Morgan" who tells that a friend had constructed about 800 on his name (specimens of which are given in his Budget of Paradoxes, p. 82)!

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