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Illustration of an anagram by George Herbert

An anagram (Greek anagramma 'letters written anew', passive participle of ana- 'again' + gramma 'letter') is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., Eleven plus two = Twelve plus one, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Astronomers = Moon starers. Someone who creates anagrams is called an anagrammist. The original word or phrase is known as the subject of the anagram.

Technically, any word or phrase that exactly reproduces the letters in another is an anagram; e.g., saltine = entails. However, the goal of serious or skilled anagrammists is to produce anagrams which, in some way, reflect or comment on the subject. Such an anagram may be a synonym or antonym of its subject, a parody, a criticism, or praise; e.g. George Bush = He bugs Gore. Another goal of anagrammists is to produce an anagram which is not only new, or previously unknown to others, but is also considered sufficiently clever to become widely known and enter the canon of famous or classic anagrams, like the examples below.