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Staring at a seemingly random collection of letters and scratching your head in confusion? No matter what anagrams game you’re playing, these helpful anagram tips will have you unscrambling letters and forming words in no time. From Word Cookies to Words With Friends, Boggle to Text Twist, you’ll know how to solve any anagram that comes your way.
1. Look for Common Patterns
Often, when you’re playing an anagrams game, you just stare at the letters until something jumps out at you. When trying to figure out how to solve anagrams, you have to remember that the English language is hardly random. Some letters just appear next to one another more frequently than others, as is the case with common consonant and vowel digraphs. For example, CH can be at the beginning of a word (like CHAIR and CHEESE) or at the end of a word (like BENCH or PINCH).
Parallel to this, you might try separating the consonants from the vowels. That’s because consonant combinations are particularly helpful. As you rearrange those letters, your brain can try to “fill in the gaps” with vowels to find your missing words. When you look at BNCH, you might already see it as BENCH or BUNCH.
2. Add Suffixes to the End
There are lots of examples of suffixes that’ll play into any anagrams game too. Learning to spot these is crucial for anyone who wants to know how to get better at anagrams. In a game like Word Wow, you can oftentimes add an -ED, -ER, or -ING to the end to form a longer word and earn more points. You can turn WALK into WALKED, WALKER or WALKING. Some other suffixes to look for include:
-ABLE (like RELIABLE)
-ION (like ACTION)
-ISH (like SELFISH)
-LY (like HAPPILY)
-NESS (like SHYNESS)
-S (like COVERS)
-TH (like SEVENTH)
-Y (like RUNNY)
3. Add Prefixes to the Beginning
Just as you can add suffixes to the end of words, you can add prefixes to the beginning of a word. For instance, you might add RE-, DE-, or UN- to the beginning of a word. RUN becomes RERUN, DO becomes UNDO, and so forth. Some other prefixes include:
A- (like APATHY)
BI- (like BICYCLE)
CON- (like CONDUCT)
EX- (like EXCUSE)
IN- (like INTERN)
PRE- (like PREWRITE)
PRO- (like PROPOSE)
4. Apply the Shuffle Button Liberally
One of the easiest things to forget when trying to figure out how to win anagrams is to shuffle the letters. Almost every anagram game out there provides you with a shuffle button. Use it. A lot. While you may have a limited number of power-ups in games like Scrabble GO or Words With Friends, you typically have unlimited shuffles. Sometimes, all it takes to solve an anagram is to see the letters in a different order.
And if you have a bit of good luck on your side, the shuffle can even reveal the correct word (or at least a good part of it) out of pure chance alone. EEDNLG might look like a hard jumble to solve, but LEGEDN makes it easy to form LEGEND.
5. Take a Systematic Approach
This anagram trick is definitely a more thorough tactic. In a circle word game like Wordscapes, you might have six letters to rearrange into words. Six letters (in a 26-letter alphabet) yield 720 possible combinations. That’s 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 720. This assumes that order matters, as is the case with words. It also assumes that you can use the same letter more than once unless you have that letter more than once.
Some people might call this a systematic approach. Other people might call it a brute force attack. The idea is that you work through every possible combination in a systematic way. With Wordscapes answers, you can ignore 1-letter and 2-letter words, as they’re not valid. So, you might start with possible 3-letter words.
Say, you have the letters ACTRIQ. Start with CA- as your first two letters, then add the remaining letters one at a time. CAT and CAR are words, but CAI and CAQ are not. You won’t go through all 720 combinations, but this systematic approach can ensure you leave no stone unturned.
6. Use the WordFinder Anagram Solver
If you want to know how to solve anagrams easily and quickly, that’s where we really help. Some people might call this cheating. We call it asking for help when you need it. If you really get stuck unscrambling letters, you can always turn to our anagram solver. Whether you’re looking for big scoring plays in Words With Friends or you’re playing any other anagrams game, this handy web tool is always just a click away.
Simply enter the letters you want to unscramble and hit the search button. It’ll automatically reveal every possible word you can form with those letters. By default, the results are sorted by word length (number of letters). If you want to be extra fancy, take advantage of the advanced search. Define if the word should start with, contain or end in a certain letter or letter combination.
The Anagram for Success
If you rearrange the letters in “anagrams game,” what words can you form? With a little experimentation and by following these tips, you’d find everything from MANAGERS to GARAGES, MAMASAN to GERMANS. Do you believe you now know how to do anagrams and are ready to put your skills to the test? Play Scrabble online with friends and see if you come out on top! Need help? Our Scrabble cheat is here for you too.
Michael Kwan is a professional writer and editor with over 14 years of experience. Fueled by caffeine and WiFi, he's no stranger to word games and dad jokes.
