Anagrammatic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to, or having the nature of, an anagram in which the letters of one word or phrase are rearranged to form another
2. Describing wordplay that rearranges the letters of a word or phrase to produce a different word or meaning
3. Involving the transposition of letters within a word or phrase to create a new word, as in puzzle-making or verbal games

Etymology: "Anagrammatic" is a straightforward formation: it comes from Latin "anagrammaticus," which is built from "anagram" plus the adjective-forming suffix "-atic," as in "dramatic" or "problematic." The suffix does the grammatical work, turning the noun into a description of anything that behaves like an anagram. The base word itself carries the more striking history. "Anagram" comes from Greek "anagrammatismos," meaning a rearrangement of letters, built from "ana-" (again, back, up) and "gramma" (letter). The idea is the old one of reshuffling the same letters into a new sense, and it was long a playful literary pastime rather than a technical term.

Synonyms: anagrammatical