Whether you are a person who loves playing Scrabble or like solving word puzzles or tough jumbled up words, one thing is for sure- to solve an anagram needs skill and expertise.
Shortly put, an anagram is a word, or a phrase, who’s letters can be reassembled to form another word or phrase. To unscramble any letters one has to spot the patterns and recognize them to form new words.
It is true that some people are better at solving anagrams than the rest are, but do not be disheartened if you are not among them. Every game has tips and tricks that will help you win the game.
Given below are simple techniques that will help you solve any kind of anagrams you come across.
- Search for prefix or suffix
From the group of letters you have, search for prefixes such as “DIS,” “EN,” “RE,” “AB,” or other common prefixes that are frequently seen in words. Also, look for suffixes such as “ING,” “ED,” “ER,” etc.
It is advisable to first look for suffixes and then the prefix. Once you have separated out these, use the remaining words to combine and form a word. Try all kinds of rearrangements that are possible with the letters.
Remember that there are anagrams that can be tough to be solved by such a method. In such a case, look for alternative methods.
- Circle
This is a trick that works wonders. Sometimes when jumbled words are kept in a straight line, you may find it difficult to recognize the pattern. Place the letters in the form of a circle and then scan through to find any valid pattern.
- Common pairings
There are letters that often go together. Learn to spot those pairs first. For example, the letter Q is mostly followed by the letter U and the letter H ( except if the word starts with it) is mostly followed by letters W, C, T, P or G. Doing so will narrow down the possible number of words and help you unscramble faster.
- Consonants and Vowels
Consonants give sound and structure to a word. Consonants are the key letters in any words grouping. Concentration on the consonants will be more fruitful rather than the vowels at first. Place the consonants in a circular manner in order to assemble them easily.
Begin by first checking the number of vowels in the group. If the vowels are more in number, then try out vowel combinations such as OU, IE, etc. However, if the vowels are less in number than consonants combinations should give you the answer. Try out consonant pairs such as SP or PR. You can even try three consonants such as GHT etc.
You can also go for a triple vowels, such as IOU. Not many words have three vowels in them, and hence learning such words will be helpful.
- Memorize as many words
Memorizing new words on a daily basis is a great way to solve anagrams quickly. Since you are spending a good amount of time in solving anagrams, there will be words that will be anagrams of some other words popping in your head.
This will help you in recognizing the required word easily. Try to memorize at least one new word every day.
- Look for hints
To unscramble anagrams for crosswords, you need to search for other hints that could be present in the clue. Write down the synonyms of the other words in the clue, or any other word you deem fit to be relevant to the clue. Doing so, you may end up with the anagram of the word you are looking for. The quick alternate way to unscramble any word is to use instawordz.com that outputs results on the fly.It accepts up to 12 letters and wildcards for further identifications.
- Practice makes a man perfect
No matter the number of tricks you learn to solve anagrams, you will not master the art if you don’t practice. To unscramble an anagram is not an easy task, and you will need constant practice to be good at it.
Playing word games is interesting as long as you know the techniques to win and score in the game. Follow the above-mentioned tips, and you will find yourself solving anagrams at lightning speed. Anagrams can be tricky most of the time; therefore, make sure you look out for the cues that are hidden.
