This curious question suddenly crossed my mind today.

What are the most common anagrams? In other words, if you took all the words in a dictionary and grouped all the anagrams together, which groups would be the biggest?

Here are the 100 most common anagrams

stael tesla least slate stale steal tales teals
carets caster caters crates reacts recast traces
pares parse pears rapes reaps spare spear
keats skate stake steak takes teaks
ingres singer reigns resign sering signer
east ates eats sate seat teas
palest pastel petals plates pleats staple
elsa lesa ales leas sale seal
post opts pots spot stop tops
alger elgar glare lager large regal
mensa amens manes manse means names
drapes padres parsed rasped spared spread
andes danes snead deans saned sedan
caret cater crate react recta trace
castor castro croats actors costar scrota
bates abets baste beast beats betas
lapse leaps pales peals pleas sepal
restrain retrains strainer terrains trainers
emits items mites smite times
ester reset steer terse trees
cretan canter nectar recant trance
easts tessa asset sates seats
lois oils silo soil soli
pores poser prose ropes spore
reins resin rinse risen siren
elam elma male lame meal
tosca ascot coast coats tacos
arts rats star tars tsar
moran norma ramon roman manor
ernest sterne enters resent tenser
darin indra randi drain nadir
drano norad ronda adorn radon
arced cadre cared cedar raced
eros rose ores roes sore
drawer redraw reward warder warred
idlest listed silted stiled tildes
angered derange enraged grandee grenade
capers crapes parsec recaps scrape
aster rates stare tares tears
enos eons noes nose ones
sabre bares baser bears saber
mister merits miters remits timers
parleys parsley players replays sparely
artiest artiste attires iratest tastier
miles selim limes slime smile
mabel mable melba amble blame
paste pates septa spate tapes
spears parses passer spares sparse
slater alerts alters salter staler
arno aron nora oran roan
enlist inlets listen silent tinsel
earp pare pear rape reap
alerting altering integral relating triangle
aridest astride staider tardies tirades
dearths hardest hatreds threads trashed
levi evil live veil vile
hares hears rheas share shear
dale leda deal lade lead
leno leon noel olen lone
seder deers deres reeds sered
glaser glares lagers larges regals
cesar acres cares races scare
astor sarto roast sorta taros
ares ears eras sear sera
deltas lasted salted slated staled
kendra danker darken narked ranked
persist priests spriest sprites stripes
abel bela elba able bale
elanor elnora lenora lorena loaner
mates meats steam tames teams
salem selma lames males meals
dniester inserted nerdiest resident trendies
tangiers angriest gantries ingrates rangiest
dorset sorted stored strode trodes
parts sprat strap tarps traps
patel leapt petal plate pleat
sahel hales heals leash shale
seton stone notes onset tones
beard debra bared bread debar
aden dane dean dena edna
claimed decimal declaim maliced medical
sung gnus guns snug
rites tiers tires tries
reduces rescued secured seducer
evan neva nave vane
leary early layer relay
latiner latrine reliant retinal
earth harte hater heart
cortes corset escort sector
asp pas sap spa
construe counters recounts trounces
artsy satyr stray trays
ate eat eta tea
past pats spat taps
esters resets serest steers
depart parted petard prated
boers bores robes sober
piers pries ripes spire
neil nile lien line
ambled bedlam blamed lambed

This is the words list used to create it. The full list of groups of anagrams can be found here, and the perl script used to generate that list below.

map {
   chomp; s/'s//; tr/A-Z/a-z/; s/[^a-z]//;
   $a = join '', sort split //;
   $words{$a} = ($_) if !defined($words{$a});
   $str = $_;
   push @{$words{$a}}, $_ if !grep $_ eq $str, @{$words{$a}};
   }<>;

for $w (sort {
      $#{$words{$b}} <=> $#{$words{$a}}
   } keys %words) {

   for(@{$words{$w}}) {
      print "$_ ";
   }
   print "\n";
}

Some of the words in this list are pronouns so you could say it’s cheating, but it’s the only word list I have at the moment.

Observations

This is an interesting group:

angered derange enraged grandee grenade

Which is the odd word out?

The word ‘anagram’ has no anagrams, what a pity.

logarithms is an anagram of algorithms

secretion is an anagram of erections