The letters of the word RETAINS form a whopping eleven anagrams making it one of the best possible racks to have for bonuses. They are:
ANESTRI plural of ANESTRUS
ANTSIER more anxious
RATINES plural of RATINE, a material
RESIANT old Scots word for resident
STARNIE a small star
STEARIN a compound of acid and alcohol
RETAINS is not the outright champion for the number of anagrams it forms. The joint title-holder is TEASING, which also notches up eleven:
EASTING position on a map to the east of a base point
GAINEST nearest
GENISTA a plant of the broom family
INGATES entrances
INGESTA ingested food
TAGINES plural of TAGINE, a heavy cooking pot
TANGIES plural of TANGIE, a water spirit
TSIGANE type of gypsy music, also spelt TZIGANE
The TANGIE is a water spirit in the Orkneys which appears as a giant man covered in seaweed. With the weather in the Orkneys, I imagine even a giant would want to be covered in something!
By Barry Grossman
Barry is a leading UK Scrabble player and winner of several tournaments. He is the author of Scrabble for Beginners (Chambers), Need to Know Scrabble, Scrabble – Play to Win and The Little Book of Scrabble Trickster. He has also contributed to numerous other books on the subject of words and word-games, has been a series champion of Channel 4’s Countdown, and has written four comedy series for BBC Radio 4. He lives in Hertford.
All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.
