What counts as an anagram?
An anagram rearranges all the letters of a word or phrase into a new one, using each letter exactly once. SILENT is an anagram of LISTEN; SILT isn’t, because it leaves letters out. To find shorter words from some of your letters, use the Word Unscrambler instead.
Examples
| Word | One-word anagrams | Two-word anagrams |
|---|---|---|
| listen | elints, enlist, inlets, silent, tinsel | 27 |
| angel | angle, genal, glean | 0 |
| night | thing | 0 |
| stressed | desserts | 11 |
| dormitory | none | 24 |
| astronomer | none | 535 |
Two-word counts here include only words of three letters or more.
Where anagrams are useful
- Word games: Scrabble and Words With Friends racks, jumbles and Wordle guesses often come down to rearranging letters.
- Crosswords: cryptic clues often hide an anagram, signalled by words like “broken” or “mixed”.
- Names and puzzles: two-word anagrams are a classic way to make a puzzle out of a name or phrase.
To solve them in your head, start with endings like -ING and -ED, then glue together pairs like TH and ST.
Frequently asked questions
How are two-word anagrams sorted?
Pairs of everyday words come first, then pairs with one or two less common words. Pairs with a two-letter word are listed after the rest.
Can I enter a phrase?
Yes. Spaces and punctuation are ignored, so “dirty room” works the same as “dirtyroom”. Up to 15 letters.
Which words are included?
The site’s word list: the public-domain ENABLE list plus extra dictionary words. Proper nouns and abbreviations aren’t included.
More word game helpers
- Scrabble Word Finder – best words from your rack
- Scrabble Cheat Board – best move on your real board
- Words With Friends Cheat – WWF words with WWF points
- Words With Friends Cheat Board – best move on a WWF board
- Wordfeud Cheat – Wordfeud words and points
- Scrabble Word Checker – is it a valid word?
- Word Unscrambler – every word in a jumble