Fully-Firstable Anagram Sets

Question

Okay, first let's define some terminology:

Anagram - Oh come on, how are you on Puzzling.SE if you don't know this one?
Anagram Set - a list of words that are all anagrams of eachother, e.g.:
- ACTS
- CAST
- CATS
- SCAT
Fully-Firstable - An anagram set where each of the letters can be found at the beginning of at least one of the words. The previous example would not qualify because there is no word starting with 'T'. One example would be:
- OPTS
- POST or POTS
- SPOT or STOP
- TOPS

I have been able to find a relatively small number of these. One optional rule I will allow to increase the chances of finding more is that if a set contains more than one of the same letter, you only need to have one word which starts with that letter, e.g. the set:

EEL
LEE

Only needs 2 words to qualify since there are only 2 unique letters.

I can easily find a number of 3- and 4-letter sets, but I am aware of only two 5-letter sets with this property, one of which uses the letter-doubling rule and one which does not. Can you find them? Are there more? Are there any with 6 or more letters?

Oh, let's disallow some things: No proper nouns or acronyms (unless these acronyms have since become commonly used as standard words such as "laser" or "scuba"), no splitting the letters into 2 or more words, stick to English please - my examples are relatively common words, but if you come up with any that use questionable or archaic words you might want to back them up with a reputable dictionary link. Also, screams, laughs, or other sound effects are not words. I'm looking at you, "AAAAAA" or "AHAHAH / HAHAHA". These are trivial to come up with and thus disqualified.

Scoring

Since the original intended answers have both been found, the search is on for longer sets! The set with the most letters will take the checkmark - in the event of a tie, the set that relies the least on letter-doubling will win.

ahh my brain read it as "Fistable" and I was so confused for a couple moments. — Sensoray, Apr 04 '19 at 14:19
Yeah, couldn't think of a better word for it, so made my own... — Darrel Hoffman, Apr 04 '19 at 14:25

tremor · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-05T04:08:25.427

29

Didn't know this stack community existed, found it by chance when this thread came up in my feed, and I do love puzzles so I'm joining. Taking a shot at this one with this entry, one of my words is considered colloquial or obsolete though.

Enters
Ernest (For the second E - Obsolete variant of Earnest)
Nester
Resent
Streen / Strene (Obsolete variant of Strain)
Tenser

edited Apr 05 '19 at 04:08

answered Apr 04 '19 at 14:19

tremor

458
3
7

2

nice first answer, welcome here! +1 in respect :) – Omega Krypton Apr 04 '19 at 14:23
Welcome to puzzling! You formatted it mostly right, just need to put 4 spaces at the end of each line to make the new one appear on a new line. – Sensoray Apr 04 '19 at 14:24
Thanks @Sensoray - I was wondering what I was doing wrong there with the spoiler format, never used it before. – tremor Apr 04 '19 at 14:25
Great job! It's nice have have great new users! – Prince North Læraðr Apr 04 '19 at 14:36
3

@Sensoray TWO spaces, not four. :) Welcome tremor and congrats on the checkmark! – Rubio Apr 04 '19 at 19:47
1

@Rubio WHAAAAT!?! my mind is blown. I swore it was 4....is there another formatting thing that requires 4 spaces? bc I swear I wasn't doing 4 spaces for no reason.... – Sensoray Apr 04 '19 at 20:06
@Sensoray 4 spaces is common for code-blocks in wiki markup - is that what you were thinking of? – Darrel Hoffman Apr 04 '19 at 20:55
Thanks all for the warm welcome, I also edited my answer to add another "e" word, instead of doubling, since there are two e's in my answer, I figured I ought to have two "e" words. – tremor Apr 05 '19 at 01:09
(is that new word, well, actually a word? It's a name, but ...) – Rubio Apr 05 '19 at 03:10
@Rubio - another obsolete variant, added citation per the OPs rules. Thanks for pointing it out though, because I thought it was the actual spelling, – tremor Apr 05 '19 at 04:27

score 11 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 04 '19 at 06:25

11

I found the same one as @Omega Krypton did (first time I got answer sniped, darn!), but I also found a possible letter doubling solution:

ESTER
RESET
STEER
TREES

and a couple of questionable ones:

EWERS
RESEW
SEWER
WERES (fantasy term for people who can transform into other beings; doesn’t appear in OED, Merriam-Webster, or Dictionary.com unfortunately)

EASTS
SEATS
ASSET
TASES (uses a taser on someone; doesn’t appear in OED but does on MW and Dictionary.com)

answered Apr 04 '19 at 06:25

HTM

16,305
2
49
114

For weres: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/weres? – Omega Krypton Apr 04 '19 at 12:00
Your first one is my intended letter-doubling solution. (It could also include rot13(GREFR)). Your other ones are indeed questionable, but you can have the checkmark - @OmegaKrypton has the other answer I was looking for, but found it with a computer, so this one wins for now - unless somebody can find a 6+ set... – Darrel Hoffman Apr 04 '19 at 12:38
Thanks so much for your inspiration for the 6+ set! – Omega Krypton Apr 04 '19 at 12:45
and sorry for taking away your check, a +1 for you in respect! – Omega Krypton Apr 04 '19 at 12:54

Omega Krypton · Answer 3 · 2019-04-04T12:44:32.703

9

6 words (with doubling) (self-generated) (thanks @PiIsNot3 for inspiration)

esters
resets
steers
treses

5 words (Confession: with computer)

emits
mites
items
times
smite

edited Apr 04 '19 at 12:44

answered Apr 04 '19 at 06:18

Omega Krypton

21,640
2
25
125

This is one of the sets I was looking for. @PilsNot3 found the other one, afraid I'll have to give them the checkmark since you used a computer, but take a +1 anyhow. – Darrel Hoffman Apr 04 '19 at 12:39
1

Hmm, a bit obscure on that last one, but I guess I can allow it - in the interests of tie-breaking though, those requiring the fewest letter-doublings will take precedence. (e.g. if someone finds a 6-letter with only 1 or no doubles, it would beat this one. A 7-letter or more would beat either, etc.) – Darrel Hoffman Apr 04 '19 at 12:53
@DarrelHoffman please give the check to tremor with one less dupe, thanks:) – Omega Krypton Apr 04 '19 at 14:28

score 7 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 04 '19 at 10:26

7

I think I've found another one

argon
groan
nagor
organ
rogan (as in rogan josh)

answered Apr 04 '19 at 10:26

hexomino

135,910
10
384
563

I can accept your 3rd word, but the 5th one I'm pretty sure is a proper noun... – Darrel Hoffman Apr 04 '19 at 12:34

score 7 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 04 '19 at 13:50

7

Shamelessly taken from @Tom’s question and @Soltius’ answer is this one (did you collaborate)??

Aretes
Eaters
Reseat
Seater
Teaser

answered Apr 04 '19 at 13:50

El-Guest

32,273
3
81
126

I don't think I've seen the question you're referring to, so no, no collaboration. I feel like your first word might be considered either a proper noun or a foreign word? Seems to be consistently either capitalized or italicized in that article... – Darrel Hoffman Apr 04 '19 at 14:23
@DarrelHoffman It's in SOWPODS and other Scrabble dictionaries, but seems to be there for its other meaning of mountain ridges, which would normally be written with an accent. (See https://scrabble.hasbro.com/en-us/tools#dictionary .) – Especially Lime Apr 04 '19 at 14:31
@DarrelHoffman please click the link/word for the English usage — plus I believe I got this answer with the same number of doubled letters before the currently accepted answer. It doesn’t appear, from the Wikipedia article, that it is a proper noun either. – El-Guest Apr 04 '19 at 17:12
This is why I wish we were allowed more than one check-marked answer - we've also got a new contender that managed 6 letters with no doubling, though the words grow increasingly obscure. Not quite sure where to draw the line... – Darrel Hoffman Apr 04 '19 at 17:55

score 6 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 04 '19 at 16:39

6

For these kinds of questions where "Scrabble dictionary rules" always top out at 5 or 6 characters, I always wish we would allow "crossword dictionary rules." For example:

(6 letters, all kinds of cheats)

ANOLES / NO SALE / ON SALE / LANOSE / E-LOANS / SLOANE

(6 letters, 20% proper nouns)

ENTERS / NESTER / TENSER / RESENT / STERNE

(5 letters, 40% cheats)

APRES / PEARS / EARPS / REAPS / SPARE

(6 letters, 80% proper nouns)

EISNER / IRENES / SERINE / NEREIS / RIESEN

To justify my posting as an answer, here's one with some uncommon words that hasn't been listed yet. (6 letters, no cheats)

ALERTS / LASTER / ESTRAL / RATELS / TALERS / STALER

answered Apr 04 '19 at 16:39

Quuxplusone

1,792
11
24

I don't know, judges? That last one looks plausible, (though the others are clearly bending the rules a bit). – Darrel Hoffman Apr 04 '19 at 18:01
@DarrelHoffman Talers, the link says Thalers. And that Taler became an alternate german word, but it did not affect the english spelling. So it doesn't quite count. Good try though!!! – Sensoray Apr 04 '19 at 20:08
@Sensoray: "Taler" is a Scrabble-accepted historical variant of "Thaler" — as is, for that matter, "Dollar"! https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/taler#Etymology_2 I just figured the Wikipedia link would be most relevant to the casual what's-thatter. – Quuxplusone Apr 04 '19 at 22:12

Mr Pie · Answer 7 · 2019-08-18T03:04:22.037

5

6 words, 5 letters

TONES
STONE
STENO
ONSET
NOTES
SETON

edited Aug 18 '19 at 03:04

answered Jun 23 '19 at 11:19

Mr Pie

6,682
1
25
88

1

dentries for your new solution... :) – Omega Krypton Jun 23 '19 at 12:03
@OmegaKrypton Dentries? Do you mean "dendrites" perhaps? – Mr Pie Jun 23 '19 at 12:26
You've missed the rule that every letter has to appear at the beginning of at least one of the words, though these are certainly honorable mentions, if not complete solutions. – Darrel Hoffman Jun 24 '19 at 18:17
@DarrelHoffman oh yes, woops. Eh well. Thanks! :) – Mr Pie Jun 25 '19 at 00:16

Fully-Firstable Anagram Sets

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