anagram Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a word or phrase spelled by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase
  2. verb read letters out of order to discover a hidden meaning
    anagrammatize; anagrammatise.

WordNet

An"a*gram noun
Etymology
F. anagramme, LL. anagramma, fr. Gr. back, again + to write. See Graphic.
Definitions
  1. Literally, the letters of a word read backwards, but in its usual wider sense, the change or one word or phrase into another by the transposition of its letters. Thus Galenus becomes angelus; William Noy (attorney-general to Charles I., and a laborious man) may be turned into I moyl in law.
An"a*gram transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To anagrammatize.
    Some of these anagramed his name, Benlowes, into Benevolus. Warburton.

Webster 1913