Anagram Worksheets

Related ELA Standard: RF.5.4

Core Standard
Answer Keys Here

You have most likely played games with anagrams for a long time, you just didn't realize that there was actually a name for. You can create an anagram by taking a word and rearranging the letters to make a new word or in some cases a phrase. This technique is used in tons of educational puzzle, games, and apps you might use every day. These worksheets will have you learn to breakdown and compose your own anagrams which cannot be only fun, but helpful for seeing word patterns.

Anagram Worksheets:

Intro to Anagrams – Use only three of the letters provided to create words that have to do with animals. Use the clues for help.

3-Letter Scramble – Unscramble the letters. Then leave one letter out of each unscrambled word to find the missing words. Use the clues for help.

Scrambled Eggs – Unscramble the four letter words.

Completed Worksheet – Some of your students will be totally lost this is a way to draw them into the concept completely.

The Next Step – This will build off of the previous worksheet and help them make sense of it.

Top Gun Reference – Unscramble the letters in each word below to make a new word that is related to the words on either side of it.

Funny Anagrams – Rearrange the letters in each word or phrase to create an anagram that is relevant to it.

Go For Two! – Create two creative anagrams for each word.

Four Letter Words – A few of these are pretty difficult.

That is Bold of You – Find the missing word in each sentence by rearranging the letters of the bolded word.

Know Where You Stand – The missing word in each sentence is an anagram of the bolded word.

Quick Take – With all the extra letters this is an easier one for you.

How Many Anagrams? – See how many anagrams you can find for each word.

Bubble Sheets – Fill each of the two attached bubbles in each case.

Which One Is It? – Circle the word that is an anagram of the bolded word.

What Are Anagrams?


The concept of an anagram is very simple. It is a word that is formed through the rearranging of letters of another word. The word or phrase that is used to create an anagram should be valid and accurate. For example, if we take the word anagram itself then it can be rearranged to form a phrase "nag a ram". Similarly, you see plenty of other examples of anagrams such as,

"statue of liberty" can be rearranged to form "built to stay free"


Purpose Of Anagrams


The concept of an anagram is very fun and interesting. It is mostly used by writers in their writings to make some sort of commentary. A good writer always knows how to effectively and smartly use anagrams in text. He can use the anagram to make comments about the subject. Anagrams should be used in a way that makes the writing witty and catchy. They are meant to be clever and playful. For example, the word "astronomer" has an anagram "moon starer". This is the best example of a smart and witty anagram. This is because the anagram is a commentary to the original subject. It makes reading more fun and exciting.

The writers are expected to be extremely selective when they are using anagrams. They cannot make anagrams for everything because it would make the writing dull and boring. Anagrams should also be used in a particular tone as they add a witty element in the text. A writer can also use anagrams to create suspense.


How to Solve An Anagram


Anagrams might seem confusing at first, but they are extremely easy and simple to solve. You can solve an anagram by separating all the letters of the word. You can arrange them in alphabetical order. Separate the consonants and vowels. Now, alphabetized anagram will help you solve the puzzle.


How Do Anagrams Help us in the Classroom?


Understand the unique relationships between letters and their arrangement to form words helps be able to recognize and decode words. This skill can also help us learn and retain new vocabulary words much quicker. Vocabulary is the basic foundation of language once we learn our words, then we can apply them and use them for our own language. The goal is to be able to take in information and be able to transmit it out in the form of writing or speaking. This is leads us to true sharing. A professor from Western Illinois University at the turn of the century identified four types of vocabulary which must be mastered, and they include reading, listening, speaking, and writing. It seems that the reading vocabulary form is often the most momentous for students and the most difficult.


Using anagrams regularly with students has be shown to vast improve reading vocabulary for students. It is like anything, add a bit of friendly competition to a situation and students will be more engaged. The anagram technique is a word play game very similar to the worksheets that you see here. Students are given a selection of letters that reside in a word and then they must rearrange the letters to create new words. This technique was used in a research group of students and a control group. The improvement rates in just three months of use were forty percent greater than that of a control group. The researchers also found a heighten interest in motivation in students who were learning with this method.


It is obvious that this technique has a great deal of merit. It definitely is not the only technique that we should use with students. You should definitely give it a try in your classes and see if it is something that works for your style of teaching. I find it very worthwhile.