An anamonic is a form of mnemonic device frequently employed by tournament Scrabble players. It consists of a "stem" (often, but not always, an acceptable word itself), paired with a phrase in which each letter can be added to the stem and rearranged to form a new word. Typical stems are sets of six or seven letters, as such anamonics aid in learning and in finding valuable seven- and eight-letter "bingo" (UK: "bonus") plays. Just as importantly, a player can quickly verify that she should not waste valuable time looking for a word in a set of letters that is ruled out by an anamonic. A mnemonic (pronounced in American English, in British English) is a memory aid. ... Scrabble board in play. ...

A successful anamonic will typically have some memorable semantic relationship to the stem. It will usually avoid unnecessary or easily confused words, which might lead to a misconception of just which letters combine with the stem.

When no vowel combines with the stem, an anamonic phrase will typically make use of multiple vowels that are meant to be ignored. A skilled Scrabble player will typically be able to verify that at least one of these vowels does not form an acceptable word with the stem, thereby avoiding confusion.

Authorship of particularly noteworthy anamonics is often acknowledged, although this is not necessarily expected by the Scrabble community. Authorship is the act of creating a work, idea or theory. ...

Example Anamonic (North American word list)

TERNATE = VHF Bradys

 +V=ANTEVERT +H=THREATEN +F=FATTENER +B=BATTENER +R=RATTENER +A=ANTEATER +D=ATTENDER/NATTERED/RATTENED +Y=ENTREATY +S=ENTREATS/RATTEENS 

(This mnemonic appeals to the fact that the children from The Brady Bunch were ternate, or grouped in threes.) The Brady Bunch was a US television situation comedy, based around a large blended family. ...

External Links

• • Canonical List of Anamonics (maintained by John Chew)