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We’re hoping that you can come up with the answer to today’s Brain Game. Regular fans know that we love anagrams, and recently, we began to wonder which word has the most one-word anagrams. The number of letters makes a difference, so let’s set the standard at four letters. The first one that came to mind was:
ARTS, RATS, STAR, TARS, TSAR
Five words using the same four letters. But we feel confident that you can do better with four different letters of your own. Give it a shot - let’s keep those four-letter words clean, folks - and add your entries via comment to this post!
6: stop opts pots post tops spot
posted by TheWireGuy on 10-10-2008 at 6:53 am
TOPS, SPOT, POST, POTS, STOP, OPTS
posted by joanna on 10-10-2008 at 6:59 am
DEER,DERE,DREE,ERED,REDE,REED
Re-captcha: divorce case (uh-oh)
posted by Michelle on 10-10-2008 at 7:05 am
SEAT,EATS,SATE,TASE,TEAS,EAST
posted by Paul-M on 10-10-2008 at 8:23 am
ok, i can’t seem to get to 5 words, but here are 2 sets of 4 words:
TIDE, TIED, EDIT, DIET
MEAT, MATE, TEAM, TAME
posted by mri on 10-10-2008 at 8:34 am
ears
sear
ares
eras
arse
sera (singular of serum)
rase (alt. spelling of raze)
posted by Kevin on 10-10-2008 at 9:10 am
scat
cats
tacs- not sure about this one…
acts
cast
posted by Hannah on 10-10-2008 at 9:34 am
pears
parse
pares
reaps
rapes
spare
spear
apers
apres
posted by Bryan on 10-10-2008 at 11:10 am
How about 7?
Seat
East
Eats
Teas
Sate
Etas
Seta (a slender, usually bristly part of an animal or plant)
posted by Greg on 10-10-2008 at 11:29 am
I have 10:
sick
kiss
kics
skis
skins
icks
isks
skic
sick
sicr
posted by Bill on 10-10-2008 at 1:24 pm
care
race
acre
acer (maple genus)
… there’s gotta be a fifth one in there somewhere.
posted by Eowyn on 10-10-2008 at 1:36 pm
care
race
acre
acer (maple genus)
… there’s gotta be another one in there somewhere…
recaptcha: coal spitting
posted by Eowyn on 10-10-2008 at 1:38 pm
Sorry about the repeat
posted by Eowyn on 10-10-2008 at 1:39 pm
bill -
i would recount and also check your letters. you wrote sick twice and kiss and sick do not have the same letters in them.
posted by kelly on 10-10-2008 at 1:39 pm
Bill, I think they are looking for real words.
posted by kbar on 10-10-2008 at 1:57 pm
Ah, this old game. Used to play it all the time.
Start with EAT TEA ATE ETA
Add an S to get the EATS sequence listed above by Paul-M
Add an L:
TALES TEALS LEAST STEAL STALE SLATE
Now add a P:
PETALS PLATES PASTEL PLEATS PALEST STAPLE
posted by loomis on 10-10-2008 at 2:11 pm
I got you all beat.
zzzz
zzzz
zzzz
zzzz
zzzz
zzzz
zzzz
zzzz
zzzz
zzzz
zzzz
zzzz
Beat that ..
posted by Servo on 10-10-2008 at 4:55 pm