Great for the anagrams

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

NASTIER

RATINES plural of RATINE, a material

RESIANT old Scots word for resident

RETAINS

RETINAS

RETSINA

STAINER

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

EATINGS

GAINEST nearest

GENISTA a plant of the broom family

INGATES entrances

INGESTA ingested food

SEATING

TAGINES plural of TAGINE, a heavy cooking pot

TANGIES plural of TANGIE, a water spirit

TEASING

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.

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