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, 1 , “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?

Anagrams are often longer words that don’t really mean anything but are fun to say. Sometimes they can even mean something 3 , like when a common word, “restaurant,” becomes “Eat rats, run!”

Actually, palindromes and anagrams are 4 . 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?