English words are made of 26 letters, and palindromes and anagrams are two kinds of word games about spelling. A palindrome is a word or a sentence that reads the same from left to right or from right to left, 40 , “eye,” “Bob,” “my gym,” and “Was it a car or a cat I saw?” An anagram of a word or words is made by putting the letters of the word or words in a different way. Look at the words and their anagrams below. Can you think of other possible anagrams of these words?
| earth | e a r h t | heart |
| between | b e e e n t w | been wet |
| a tie | a i t e | I eat |
| mistake | m t i a e s k | 41 |
Anagrams are often longer words that don’t really mean anything but are fun to say. Sometimes they can even mean something 42 , like when a common word, “restaurant,” becomes “Eat rats, run!”
Actually, palindromes and anagrams are 43 . Palindromes can be used to learn mathematics and make music. Anagrams are also a good way to hide something. In history, people often hid their important studies in anagrams. Can you think of any other way to use them?