Anagram is a noun meaning a word or phrase that is constructed by changing the letters of another word or phrase.
Originating in Greek, the prefix a-N-A indicates return or repeat and gramma means word.
There are anagram games, where the objective is to form as many words using the available letters. It is also possible to find automatic anagram generators, which create different words by changing the position of the letters. An anagram can be a word with meaning (in the dictionary) or not.
To create an anagram, two or more letters can be swapped. For example: the word stone can be turned into loss if we change the "d" to the "r". With the same word "stone", it is possible to form the word "priest", replacing the letter "a" with the letter "e". Loss and priest are anagrams of stone.
Other examples of anagrams:
- Happiness: allergy, perk, gallery;
- song: catinga;
- Car: blush;
- Wall: course.
Anagram in Mathematics
In the field of mathematics, anagrams are related to combinatorial analysis, and consist of the permutation of the letters in a word.
To find out how many anagrams it is possible to form with a word (without repeated letters), we must make the permutation with the number of letters. In the case of the word "food", with six letters, the result is 6! (6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1) = 720. Thus, it is possible to build 720 anagrams with the word "food".