What is not an anagram?
People sometimes confuse palindromes, acronyms and acrostics with anagrams. Palindromes are words or phrases that are spelt the same forwards and backwards, such as “A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!” The Fun-with-words website has a useful section on palindromes. Strictly speaking, acronyms are actual words that are formed by the initials of a place, organisation or the like, e.g. MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital). However, the meaning of the word “acronym” has undergone some change with the advent of the Internet and the use of TLA (Three Letter Acronyms), such as BTW (by the way). These are really abbreviations rather than true acronyms. Poems in which the first letters of each line spell out a word or name are sometimes erroneously called anagram poems, but are more properly referred to as acrostics. For some true anagram poems (a few of which are also acrostics) see our Literary Archives.
