Fun App: Internet Anagram Server

I hope everyone enjoyed Easter yesterday. It was a quiet one for us since we talked to all the kids and relatives via Facetime or phone call.

To my Canadian friends celebrating Easter Monday, I hope the day is wonderful for you.

Today's App Review: Internet Anagram Server

Kids love anagrams, words or phrases you spell by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase.

For instance, the few letters than make up my name—Joan Reeves—can be rearranged to read:

Jean Soever
Jan Oversee
Jean Ever So

which, I suppose, would be great pseudonyms if I chose to use a pen name. The letters in my name can actually be rearranged 35 other ways to create phrases such as Jars Eve One.

If you're a Harry Potter fan, you may know that Lord Voldemort’s full name is an anagram of his birth name. One game anagram fans play is to challenge others to make anagrams that are still relevant to the original word or phrase, i.e., the word schoolmaster can be turned into the classroom, or the phrase debit card can be rearranged to make bad credit.

The phrase romance novel can generate 1,796 anagrams—everything from Enclave Moron to Vernal Come On. Some of the phrases sound nonsensical and really funny. Kids love that!

Usually, the only rule in an anagram game is that all of the letters from the original word or phrase must be used when they’re rearranged to say something different. That gets a little challenging.

I remember Dick Cavett, who once had a late night talk show on American television, excelled at creating anagrams on the fly. He could take a word or phrase and just start spouting anagrams from it.

Takeaway Truth

Try Internet Anagram Server with your kids. It's a good way to get them to think and increase their ability to use words. That enhances their ability to articulate.