Anagram clues

The anagram is the most common cryptic device, and usually the first one a new solver learns to spot. The clue gives you the exact letters of the answer, jumbled up, plus a code word that tells you to rearrange them.

How an anagram clue works

Every anagram clue has three parts sitting next to each other:

• The definition. A plain meaning of the answer, always at the start or the end of the clue.
• The anagram indicator. A word or phrase that means "mixed up", telling you the letters need rearranging.
• The fodder. The letters you rearrange. The fodder always has exactly as many letters as the answer, so the number in brackets is your check.

Because the letters are right there in the clue, an anagram is one of the few clues you can solve with no crossing letters at all. Find a word of the right length that sits next to the indicator, then rearrange its letters into something that fits the definition.

Signals to look for

An anagram indicator is any word that can suggest disorder, damage, movement or change. That is a huge pool, which is part of why anagrams are so common. A few that Decryptic uses:

Signals mixed, broken, cooked, confused, strange, wild, shattered, drunk, at sea, out of order

The trick is spotting that an ordinary-looking word (cooked, drunk, bad) is really an instruction to jumble letters. Whenever a word could mean "mixed up", check the letters next to it.

A worked example

Recruit, strangely silent (6) → ENLIST

• Recruit is the definition. The answer means "recruit".
• strangely is the indicator. It tells you something nearby is out of order.
• silent is the fodder: six letters, matching the (6).

Rearrange the letters of SILENT and you get ENLIST, which means to recruit. The definition and the wordplay agree, and the length is right. ✓

More examples

Once you know the shape, they start to jump out. Try spotting the three parts in each of these before you read the answer.

Broken tinsel forms waterways (6) → INLETS

waterways is the definition, Broken is the indicator, and tinsel is the fodder. Rearrange T-I-N-S-E-L into INLETS. ✓

Dirty room converted into sleeping quarters (9) → DORMITORY

sleeping quarters is the definition and converted is the indicator. The nine letters of DIRTY ROOM rearrange to spell DORMITORY. ✓

Common pitfalls

• Jumbling the wrong word. The indicator sits right beside the fodder, and the fodder must have the same number of letters as the answer. If the letters do not add up, you have grabbed the wrong word.
• Missing a two-word fodder. The letters can come from more than one word. In a (6) clue, "at sea" might be the indicator and the six letters could be two short words combined.
• Forcing the definition. A real anagram gives a word that genuinely means the definition. If your rearrangement only nearly fits, it is probably not the answer.

Stuck on a clue in Decryptic? Tap ? Help and it will tell you when you are looking at an anagram and which letters to rearrange, so you can see the pattern for yourself.

Prefer to work the letters by hand? Try the free anagram helper — type the fodder and drag, roll or circle the letter tiles until the answer appears.