When you have turned Pepsi-Cola into episcopal, or cart-horse into orchestra, or even dishonest into hedonists you have created an anagram – a rearrangement of the letters in a word or phrase to form another word or phrase. Anagrams are said to have originated in the fourth century BC with the Greek poet Lycophron, and they have been popular in every period of history since then.
Anagrams become more interesting when they relate in some way to the original word or phrase.
- Allegories … Lies Galore
- Alphabetically … I Play All the ABC
- Animosity … Is No Amity
- Astronomer … Moon Starer
- Considerate … Care is Noted
- Conversation … Voices Rant On
- Curtailment … Terminal Cut
- Dynamite … May End It
- Disconsolate … Is Not Solaced
- Endearment … Tender Name
- Lubrication … Act, Rub Oil In
- Measurements … Man Uses Meter
- Misrepresentation … Interpret One Amiss
- Parishoner … I Hire Parson
- Pittance … A Cent Tip
- Predestination … I Pertain to Ends
- Presbyterian … Best in Prayer
- Punishment … Nine Thumps
- Revolution … Love to Ruin
- Saintliness … Least in Sins
- Schoolmaster … In The Classroom
- Separation … One is Apart
- Softheartedness … Often Sheds Tears
- Staghounds … A Hunt’s Dogs
- Suggestion … It Eggs Us On
- Tempestuous … Seems Put Out
- Tragedian … Egad, I Rant
- Tribulations … Is But on Trial
- Undiplomatic … Mad, Unpolitic
- Uniformity … I Form Unity
- Upholsterers … Restore Plush
- Waitress … A Stew, Sir?
- The Aristocracy … A Rich Tory Caste
- Bathing Girls … In Slight Garb
- The Boarding House … This Abode O’Hunger
- Circumstantial Evidence … Actual Crime isn’t Evinced
- The Countryside … No City Dust Here
- Fool’s Paradise … So Ideal for Sap
- French Revolution … Violence Run Forth
- HMS Pinafore … Name for Ship
- Integral Calculus … Calculating Rules
- The Irish Nation … Oh, That is in Erin
- Midwinter Weather … Wind, Rime, Wet Earth
- The Mona Lisa … Ah, Not a Smile
- The Morse Code … Here Come Dots
- The Nudist Colony … No Untidy Clothes
- Police Protection … Let Cop Cope In Riot
- A Sentence of Death … Faces One at the End
- Silver and Gold … Grand Old Evils
- Slot Machines … Cash Lost In ‘Em
- Suspended Animation … Supine Man is Not Dead
- Western Union … No Wire Unsent