How to play Anagrams

Anagrams is a quick, brain-stretching word game built on a single handful of letters. You are dealt six jumbled letters, and from them you build as many real words as you can. There is no clock pressing on you and no penalty for a wrong guess, so it is an easy game to dip into for a couple of minutes or settle into for a longer stretch.

Goal

Make every common three-, four-, five-, and six-letter word that can be spelled from the six letters on offer. Each letter may be used only as many times as it actually appears in the pool — if there is just one R, you cannot use two. The aim is to discover as many of the hidden words as possible and to push your score as high as you can.

How to play

• Type a word using the dealt letters and press Enter (or the submit button) to play it.
• Valid words are accepted and added to your found list, sorted by length; the game tells you if a word is too short, already found, or not in the list.
• Use the shuffle button to rearrange the six letters — a new arrangement often jogs loose a word you had missed.
• When you are done, the give-up button reveals every word that was hiding in the pool, with the ones you found highlighted.

Scoring

Longer words are worth far more, so they are well worth the effort: a three-letter word scores 1 point, a four-letter word 2, a five-letter word 4, and a six-letter word a full 8. Your best score is saved on this device, giving you a target to beat next time.

Strategy and tips

Chase the long words first — a single six-letter find is worth eight three-letter words, and spotting it early often reveals shorter words nestled inside it. After that, sweep systematically for five- and four-letter words before mopping up the threes. Common beginnings such as re-, un-, and pre- and endings such as -ed and -er are reliable places to look, and shuffling the tiles whenever you stall is one of the best ways to see fresh combinations.