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.

Methods

Before the computer age, anagrams were constructed using a pen and paper or lettered tiles, by playing with letter combinations and experimenting with variations. (Some individuals with prodigious talent have also been known to ?see? anagrams in words, unaided by tools.)

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Computers have enabled a new method of creating anagrams, the anagram server. An anagram server utilizes an exhaustive database of words. The anagrammist (one who creates anagrams) enters a word or phrase into a the server?s search engine, and the server produces a list containing every possible combination of words or phrases from the input word or phrase. Anagram servers use advanced features to control the search results, by excluding or including certain words, limiting the number or length of words in each anagram, or limiting the number of results.

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When sharing their newly discovered anagrams with other enthusiasts, some anagrammists indicate the method they used. Anagrams constructed without aid of a computer are noted as having been done ?manually? or ?by hand?; those made by utilizing a computer may be noted ?by machine? or ?by computer?, or may indicate the name of the computer program (using ?Anagram Genius?).

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Anagram servers are available on the Internet. Some examples are Internet Anagram Server, (http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/), Anagram Genius (http://www.anagramgenius.com/server.html), and Arrak Anagrams (http://www.arrak.fi/ag/index_en.html).

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