By anagram familes, we are talking about groups of words which are anagrams of each other – if you have the letters for one word, you have the letters for the others. For those of you who play Scrabble, these are a good source of word ideas.

For those of you who want to have a little fun, how many anagrams of each of the following can you name?

• Spare
• Alerts
• Earrings
• Aspen
• Parsec

[Answers After The Break – Stop Here If You’re Trying To Guess The Words]

These were derived using a little python script – we built a lookup table using letter frequencies (quick hack – sort letters of the word into alphabetical order – gives you a unique key and requires minimal additional gyrations). We noted where multiple words shared the same letters and thus… identified the anagram familes!

The largest set of anagrams was:
SPARE (for when you need words to spare)? 12 Entries in the Enable dictionary…

• apers, apres, asper, pares, parse, pears, prase, presa, rapes, reaps, spare, spear

Working our way down the list:

Sets of 11 anagrams:

• alerts, alters, artels, estral, laster, ratels, salter, slater, staler, stelar, talers

Sets of 10 anagrams:

• least, setal, slate, stale, steal, stela, taels, tales, teals, tesla

Sets of 9 anagrams (many words in this batch were uncommon):

• palest, palets, pastel, petals, plates, pleats, septal, staple, tepals
• capers, crapes, escarp, pacers, parsec, recaps, scrape, secpar, spacer
• estrin, inerts, insert, inters, niters, nitres, sinter, triens, trines
• anestri, antsier, nastier, ratines, retains, retinas, retsina, stainer, stearin

Sets of 8 anagrams – the first one looks particularly useful for scrabble:

• ates, east, eats, etas, sate, seat, seta, teas
• arles, earls, lares, laser, lears, rales, reals, seral
• lapse, leaps, pales, peals, pleas, salep, sepal, spale
• peris, piers, pries, prise, ripes, speir, spier, spire
• enters, nester, renest, rentes, resent, tenser, ternes, treens
• carets, cartes, caster, caters, crates, reacts, recast, traces
• aspers, parses, passer, prases, repass, spares, sparse, spears
• earings, erasing, gainers, reagins, regains, reginas, searing, seringa

And – finally – sets of Seven anagrams, first ones are good scrabble words:

• ares, arse, ears, eras, rase, sear, sera
• aril, lair, lari, liar, lira, rail, rial
• arils, lairs, laris, liars, liras, rails, rials
• emits, items, metis, mites, smite, stime, times
• acres, cares, carse, escar, races, scare, serac
• caret, carte, cater, crate, react, recta, trace
• leapt, lepta, palet, petal, plate, pleat, tepal
• abets, baste, bates, beast, beats, betas, tabes
• resaw, sawer, sewar, sware, swear, wares, wears
• laves, salve, selva, slave, vales, valse, veals
• aspen, napes, neaps, panes, peans, sneap, spean
• deist, diets, dites, edits, sited, stied, tides
• amens, manes, manse, means, mensa, names, nemas
• paste, pates, peats, septa, spate, tapes, tepas
• ester, reest, reset, steer, stere, terse, trees
• armets, master, maters, matres, ramets, stream, tamers
• lavers, ravels, salver, serval, slaver, velars, versal
• canter, carnet, centra, nectar, recant, tanrec, trance
• merits, mister, miters, mitres, remits, smiter, timers
• cruets, cruset, curets, eructs, rectus, recuts, truces
• ariled, derail, dialer, laired, railed, redial, relaid
• poster, presto, repots, respot, stoper, topers, tropes
• arrest, rarest, raster, raters, starer, tarres, terras
• nestor, noters, stoner, tenors, tensor, toners, trones
• pinots, pintos, piston, pitons, points, postin, spinto
• algins, aligns, lasing, liangs, ligans, lingas, signal
• enosis, eosins, essoin, noesis, noises, ossein, sonsie
• ardebs, bardes, beards, breads, debars, sabred, serdab
• drapes, padres, parsed, rasped, spader, spared, spread
• aridest, astride, diaster, disrate, staider, tardies, tirades
• empires, emprise, epimers, imprese, premies, premise, spireme
• artiest, artiste, attires, iratest, ratites, striate, tastier
• canters, carnets, nectars, recants, scanter, tanrecs, trances
• elastin, entails, nailset, salient, saltine, slainte, tenails
• esprits, persist, priests, spriest, sprites, stirpes, stripes
• estrous, oestrus, ousters, sourest, souters, stoures, tussore
• angriest, astringe, ganister, gantries, granites, ingrates, rangiest

Six Anagrams in a Set –  some nice ones for scrabble – particularly the 3 – 5 letter sets:

• opts, post, pots, spot, stop, tops
• staw, swat, taws, twas, wast, wats
• stow, swot, tows, twos, wost, wots
• alert, alter, artel, later, ratel, taler
• mates, meats, satem, steam, tames, teams
• ardeb, barde, bared, beard, bread, debar
• riots, rotis, tiros, torsi, trios, trois
• parts, prats, sprat, strap, tarps, traps
• hales, heals, leash, selah, shale, sheal
• notes, onset, seton, steno, stone, tones
• piles, plies, slipe, speil, spiel, spile
• inset, neist, nites, senti, stein, tines
• cruet, curet, cuter, eruct, recut, truce
• deils, delis, idles, isled, sidle, slide
• ashed, deash, hades, heads, sadhe, shade
• acred, arced, cadre, cared, cedar, raced
• diols, idols, lidos, sloid, soldi, solid
• leets, sleet, steel, stele, teels, teles
• pores, poser, prose, repos, ropes, spore
• deers, drees, redes, reeds, seder, sered
• airts, astir, sitar, stair, stria, tarsi
• dater, derat, rated, tared, trade, tread
• reins, resin, rinse, risen, serin, siren
• peers, perse, prees, prese, speer, spree
• bares, baser, bears, braes, saber, sabre
• rosets, sorest, stores, torses, tosser, tsores
• bluest, bluets, bustle, butles, sublet, subtle
• eviler, levier, liever, relive, revile, veiler
• leasts, slates, stales, steals, tassel, teslas
• esprit, priest, ripest, sprite, stripe, tripes
• gapers, gasper, grapes, pagers, parges, sparge
• deltas, desalt, lasted, salted, slated, staled
• aliens, alines, elains, lianes, saline, silane
• girons, grison, groins, rosing, signor, soring
• esters, reests, resets, serest, steers, steres
• corset, coster, escort, rectos, scoter, sector
• gaster, grates, greats, retags, stager, targes
• larees, leaser, reales, resale, reseal, sealer
• paster, paters, prates, repast, tapers, trapes
• aiders, deairs, irades, raised, redias, resaid
• hassel, hassle, lashes, selahs, shales, sheals
• luster, lustre, result, rustle, sutler, ulster
• reigns, renigs, resign, sering, signer, singer
• aretes, easter, eaters, reseat, seater, teaser
• alevin, alvine, valine, veinal, venial, vineal
• caress, carses, crases, escars, scares, seracs
• elints, enlist, inlets, listen, silent, tinsel
• deposit, dopiest, podites, posited, sopited, topside
• easters, reseats, searest, seaters, teasers, tessera
• aspirer, parries, praiser, rapiers, raspier, repairs
• parties, pastier, piaster, piastre, pirates, traipse
• easting, eatings, ingates, ingesta, seating, teasing
• realist, retails, saltier, saltire, slatier, tailers
• dearths, hardest, hardset, hatreds, threads, trashed
• petrous, posture, pouters, proteus, spouter, troupes
• albites, astilbe, bastile, bestial, blastie, stabile
• recepts, respect, scepter, sceptre, specter, spectre
• hectors, rochets, rotches, tochers, torches, troches
• palters, persalt, plaster, platers, psalter, stapler
• lusters, lustres, results, rustles, sutlers, ulsters
• carpels, clasper, parcels, placers, reclasp, scalper
• claroes, coalers, escolar, oracles, recoals, solacer
• diopters, dioptres, peridots, proteids, riposted, topsider
• estrange, grantees, greatens, negaters, reagents, sergeant
• painters, pantries, pertains, pinaster, pristane, repaints
• aligners, engrails, nargiles, realigns, signaler, slangier
• alerting, altering, integral, relating, tanglier, triangle

Below this level (anagram sets with less than 6 words),  the number of sets rose rapidly. Here’s a count of number of sets (not words) by # of anagrams in the set:

• 2 anagrams – 9579 sets
• 3 anagrams – 1904 sets
• 4 anagrams – 511 sets
• 5 anagrams – 188 sets

The post Large Anagram Families – Potential Scrabble Words appeared first on Hanging Hyena.

A simple example is GOAT, which is a direct anagram of TOGA. Makes you wonder exactly how wild those ancient parties got.

You can also have indirect anagrams – where you split the original word into multiple words. WINE => WE IN, clearly a reference of the bonding value of drinking with your clients and prospects. In contrast BEER => BE ER, a ominous note. So the next time you’re trying to close a deal, break out the good stuff!

Scotch was a non-starter – no direct anagrams and the single vowel made it hard to build a set of indirect anagrams. I tried a couple of other forms of hard liquor with similar results.

To play along at home, you can use our Scrabble Helper – enter the letters in the word you are interested in and look at the items on the list of possible words which use all the letters in your hand.

The post Introducing “Anagram Families” appeared first on Hanging Hyena.