anagram
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əˌgræmBased on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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| to chew (food) slowly and thoroughly. |
| to introduce subtleties into or argue subtly about. |
anagram (ˈænəˌɡræm) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —n | |
| a word or phrase the letters of which can be rearranged into another word or phrase | |
| [C16: from New Latin anagramma, shortened from Greek anagrammatismos, from anagrammatizein to transpose letters, from | |
| anagrammatic | |
| —adj | |
| anagram'matical | |
| —adj | |
| anagram'matically | |
| —adv | |
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anagram
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anagram
the transposing of the letters of a word or group of words to produce other words that possess meaning, preferably bearing some logical relation to the original. The construction of anagrams is of great antiquity. Their invention is often ascribed without authority to the Jews, probably because the later Hebrew writers, particularly the Kabbalists, were fond of them, asserting that "secret mysteries are woven in the numbers of letters." Anagrams were known to the Greeks and Romans, although known Latin examples of words of more than one syllable are nearly all imperfect. They were popular throughout Europe during the Middle Ages and later, particularly in France, where a certain Thomas Billon was appointed "anagrammatist to the king."
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