Anagram generator, for names and whole phrases.

An anagram generator rearranges the letters of a word, name or phrase into other words or phrases that use each letter exactly once. This one is built for phrases: it can split your letters across up to six words, so "dormitory" becomes "dirty room". If you only want single-word anagrams of a word, or want to solve a word puzzle with blank tiles, the anagram solver is the better fit.

How to use the anagram generator

1. Type a name, word or phrase in the big box. Results appear as you type. Only letters count: spaces, capitals, digits and punctuation are ignored, and accents are taken off.
2. Read the list. Phrases with fewer words come first. Click a phrase to copy it, or press Copy all.
3. Set Most words in a phrase from 1 to 6. A higher number finds more phrases and takes longer.
4. Raise Shortest word to 4 or 5 letters if the list is full of tiny words, or lower it to 2 for more choice.
5. Choose Words to use: Everyday, Common or Most words. Most words includes rarer ones, such as "tor" and "moi".
6. Type a word in Must include to force it into every phrase, and words in Leave out to ban them.
7. Switch on Allow the same word twice if a phrase may repeat a word, such as "sees sees". Under Letters choose capitals on each word, all lower case or all capitals. When there are more than 300 results, press Show 300 more, and Save as .txt writes the whole list to a file.
8. Press Jumble for a random shuffle of your letters, which is not made of real words but is handy for a puzzle or a game.

Worked example: dormitory

Dormitory has nine letters: d, o, r, m, i, t, o, r, y, which is two o, two r and one each of d, m, i, t and y. The phrase "dirty room" uses d, i, r, t, y from "dirty" and r, o, o, m from "room". Put the two together and you have d, i, r, t, y, r, o, o, m, the same nine letters, none left over and none added. With 2 words and Common words, the tool finds three phrases: dirty room, dirty moor and roomy dirt. With 3 words and Most words it finds nine, such as dry too rim and rod toy rim.

More phrases to try

For "eleven plus two" the letter count is 6 for eleven, 4 for plus and 3 for two: 13 letters. "Twelve plus one" is 6 plus 4 plus 3, the same 13 letters. For "astronomer" the list is long, 119 phrases with 2 words, and "starer moon" is one of them. Type starer in Must include to see it at once.

Why a name may give odd results

The word list holds ordinary English words, not proper names or slang. A name such as "Elvis" gives only the real words its letters can make, such as "lives". Anagrams of a person's name are for fun, so check that a result is kind before you share it. Short names with only a few letters give few results, and long phrases give many. If you see nothing, try more words, shorter words, or a wider word setting.

The search limit

Finding every way to split a long phrase is slow, so the search is limited to 24 letters, stops after 4,000 phrases or 4 seconds, whichever comes first, and shows the best 300, with a note when it did. Lower the number of words or raise the shortest word to speed it up. The results already found stay on screen.

Common problems

• No results. The letters may not split into words from the list. Widen Words to use, allow more words, or allow the words a and I.
• The original comes back. It does not: phrases made of exactly the words you typed are left out.
• A word you hate keeps appearing. Put it in Leave out.

Steering the results

Two settings turn a long list into the one you want. Must include takes a word and removes its letters first, then fills the rest. Type dormitory, put room in Must include, and with 2 words the only phrase left is "room dirty", because the letters d, i, r, t and y that remain spell dirty. Leave out bans words that spoil the result, such as a rude word or a word that keeps coming back. Both take several words, separated by commas or spaces.

Which names give many results and which give few

A phrase made of common letters such as e, a, t, o, i, n and s splits into many words. A phrase with j, q, x or z gives far fewer, because few words use those letters. Longer text gives more combinations but takes longer to search, so try 2 words first and raise the limit only if the list is short. If you want a long phrase turned into one tidy line, set the shortest word to 4 or 5 letters. If you want a playful result for a nickname or a puzzle clue, allow 3 letter words and the words a and I.

Related tools: the anagram solver for single words and word games, the word unscrambler, and the random word generator.