76 Anagram Puzzles
An anagram is a word or phrase made up of the letters of
another word or phrase.
Here are some simple examples:
TEACH = cheat
PALE = leap, plea, peal
ROMAN = a norm, a morn, no arm, manor
TEA CUP = apt cue, cut pea
How to solve anagrams
Write the word backwards or in a circle. This takes your mind off the original word and its meaning. Always use capital letters.
OR
Write each letter on a small card. Use capital letters. Shuffle the cards around on the table.
Ignore all capital letters, punctuation and spaces in the original word or
phrase. Insert new capital letters, spaces and punctuation if your new word or
phrase needs them.
In ORANGE, you'll find: go near, one rag, an ogre, no rage
Limitations
Some words will not give you many variations.
Some may give you words and phrases which do not make much sense. You might not
always find many ‘sensible’ or rational phrases when you shuffle the letters
around.
SAUCER = a curse, care us, causer, race us, sea cur, sue
car, use arc, use car
COMPUTER = cute romp, curt poem
LITERATE = relate it, elite art, tree tail, title era
The best words to use are those that have a good variety of vowels and common
consonants.
More examples
Longer words and phrases with a good selection of letters can bring some surprising result.
EAT BREAD a debater, area debt, eared bat
TRADITION idiot rant, adroit nit, radio tint
TRADITIONAL taint old air, inlaid Tarot, dial to rain, and lit a trio
CANTERBURY try ABC rune, can’t rebury, Cuban Terry, bay current
You might sometimes get results which seem to have a weird connection with your
original word.
TRADITIONAL Odin on trial, an Iliad trot
MILLIPEDE limpid eel
MERCHANT cent harm
BROCCOLI boil croc
Here are some Australian cities:
You’ll find A BROTH in HOBART
You can LOCATE NUNS in LAUNCESTON
RAINS EBB in BRISBANE
There’s ONE RUMBLE in MELBOURNE
Try it with the names of towns, cities and counties
where you live! Some will work, some won't. For example, I was born in the
village of Balderton, near Newark, which give me NOBLE DART, WE RANK. I live in
the city of Monash, part of Melbourne. That doesn't have many letters to play
with but it gives me NO HAMS. But the name of the suburb is Mount Waverley,
which makes lots of anagrams, including MATURELY WOVEN and MULE AWRY, NO VET.
This introduction is based on an article first published in
Vision (the journal of Victorian Association for Gifted and Talented
Children).
Now it’s your turn
I have compiled some rather cryptic anagrams for you to solve. They are grouped in four themes. When you have worked out what the theme is, the solutions will come more easily.
Do the four sets in order, starting with no. 1 and finishing with no. 4.
Remember, you must ignore what the anagrams seem to say. It has nothing to do with the answer!
Have a look through the numbered clues. Check them against
the anagrams. Do the easy ones first. That will narrow down your choices for the
more difficult ones.
The clues and answers relate to the way words are used in Australia. There might
be a couple of differences in the way the words are used in other countries. The
answers are given separately. Please don’t look at them until you are
desperate. Please don’t look at the answers to the group(s) you have not yet
done!
This will be good brain exercise. It could be a good idea to
work with someone else: use two brains!
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Anagrams Answers