How does an anagram form new words by rearranging letters?

An anagram is a word or group of words formed by transposing—or rearranging—the letters of another word or phrase. Rather than being a figure of speech in the rhetorical sense, an anagram is a form of wordplay that relies on the mechanical manipulation of characters.1

The process involves taking the exact set of letters from a source and reordering them to create a new expression, ideally one that maintains a logical or thematic relationship to the original. For example, the letters in the Latin phrase ars magna ("great art") can be rearranged to spell anagrams. Similarly, in literature, authors may use anagrams to create pseudonyms or reveal hidden meanings, such as when the character Tom Marvolo Riddle rearranges his name to spell "I am Lord Voldemort".1

While the term is sometimes associated with historical or religious interpretation, it is primarily used today in recreational activities like crossword puzzles and games such as Scrabble, where the ability to mentally reorder letters is a key skill.1