What are the word records for transposition (rearrange letters to form another word)?

[ Editor: from the Taxonomy of Wordplay, www.questrel.com, retrieved 28 Oct 2026. Classes (common, uncommon, hyphenated words, phrases), scores, ties (-t) and the source codes in brackets are explained in language/english/word.records.introduction. ]

Sources: [L80,290,3-24,136,9-21,85,14-60,88,17-220,19-207,20-23,23-26,207]

a.  longest
        i. well-mixed [11-173,14-93,22-3,100]
                common words: antiparticles & paternalistic (13)
                uncommon words: cinematographers & megachiropterans (16)
                phrases: inarticulatenesses & natural necessities (18)
        ii.  not well-mixed
                common words: algorithmically & logarithmically (15)
                uncommon words: hydroxydeoxycorticosterones & hydroxydesoxycorticosterone (27)
                phrases: heisenberg uncertainty principles & heisenberg's uncertainty principle (31-t)
                phrases: throw out the baby with the bathwater & throw the baby out with the bath water (31-t)
                phrases: tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner & tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner (31-t)
                hyphenated phrases: generative-transformational grammar & transformational-generative grammar (33)
b.  most [L86,292,9-216,10-21,12-153,172,214,218,14-137,149,153,218,15-22,106,16-93]
        i. quality
                common words: palest & pastel & petals & plates & pleats & septal & staple (42)
                uncommon words: anestri & antsier & nastier & neritas & ratines & resiant & restain & retinas & retsina & starnie & stearin & taniers (84)
        ii. not quality 
                common words: apres & pares & parse & pears & prase & rapes & reaps & spare & spear (9)
                uncommon words: arets & aster & astre & earst & rates & reast & resat & serta & stare & stear & strae & tares & taser & tears & teras (15-t)
                uncommon words: atles & laets & lates & least & leats & salet & setal & slate & stale & steal & stela & taels & tales & teals & tesla (15-t)
                uncommon words: angriest & angrites & astringe & gairtens & ganister & gantries & granites & ingrates & rangiest & reasting & stearing & tangiers & tasering & tearings & tigreans (15-t)
                phrases: Setar & Taser & arets & aster & astre & earst & rates & reast & resat & serta & stare & stear & strae & tares & taser & tears & teras (17-t)
                phrases: Stael & Tesla & atles & laets & lates & least & leats & salet & setal & slate & stale & steal & stela & taels & tales & teals & tesla (17-t)
                phrases: Tigreans & angriest & angrites & astringe & gairtens & ganister & gantries & granites & inert gas & ingrates & rangiest & reasting & seat ring & stearing & tangiers & tasering & tea rings & tearings & tigreans (19)
c.  complete transposal lists
        i. rotated (all possible rotations of letters form other words), longest [L93]
                common words: ate & tea & eat (3)
                uncommon words: aras & rasa & asar & sara (4-t)
                uncommon words: alan & lana & anal & nala (4-t)
                uncommon words: doli & olid & lido & idol (4-t)
                uncommon words: aing & inga & ngai & gain (4-t)
                uncommon words: esky & skye & kyes & yesk (4-t)
        ii. nearly complete
                uncommon words: ate & eat & tae & tea & eta (3-t)
                uncommon words: are & ear & era & rea & aer (3-t)
                uncommon words: ets & set & tes & tse & est (3-t)
                uncommon words: art & rat & tar & tra & rta (3-t)
                uncommon words: ayr & ray & rya & yar & ary (3-t)
d.  highest ratio count divided by length
        common words: apres & pares & parse & pears & prase & rapes & reaps & spare & spear (1.8)
        uncommon words: arets & aster & astre & earst & rates & reast & resat & serta & stare & stear & strae & tares & taser & tears & teras (3-t)
        uncommon words: atles & laets & lates & least & leats & salet & setal & slate & stale & steal & stela & taels & tales & teals & tesla (3-t)
e.  non-tautonym exchange front and rear non-word parts, longest
e.g., RAINING = RAIN ING = ING RAIN = INGRAIN
        common words: inground & rounding (8)
        uncommon words: decimosexto & sextodecimo (11)
        hyphenated words: yada-yada-yada & yada-yada-yada (12)
        phrases: inter arma silent leges & silent leges inter arma (20)
f.  first transposal, solid word, for each letter [4-28,143]
g.  last transposal, solid word, for each letter
h.  cycles or rings [15-147]
i.  all possible
        i.  four-letters [4-55,169]
        ii.  five-letters [3-25,11-107]
        iii.  six-letters [3-27]
        iv.  ten-letters [4-231]

-- Taxonomy of Wordplay, www.questrel.com