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This is in the spirit of the What is a Word/Phrase™ series started by JLee with a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles.

If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it an Anagrammable Word™.

Use the following examples below to find the rule.

Anagrammable Words™ Not Anagrammable Words™
ALARM PANIC
ANIMAL ALIEN
BLESSING KINDNESS
BLOOD PLASMA
EGGS HAM
HATTER HAIR-STYLIST
HEART TICKER
FRACTION TRACTION
ONE-OUT TWO-IN-ONE
SAMPLING SAPLING
VERB VERBAL

And, if you want to analyze, here is a CSV version:

ANAGRAMMABLE Words™,Not ANAGRAMMABLE Words™
ALARM,PANIC
ANIMAL,ALIEN
BLESSING,KINDNESS
BLOOD,PLASMA
EGGS,HAM
HATTER,HAIR-STYLIST
HEART,TICKER
FRACTION,TRACTION
ONE-OUT,TWO-IN-ONE
SAMPLING,SAPLING
VERB,VERBAL

Notes:

  1. It is preferable to include explanation for each Anagrammable Word™, but not necessarily for non-Anagrammable Words™ .
  2. Font/case doesn't matter.
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  • $\begingroup$ Interestingly, 'alarm' doesn't form any anagrams... $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Sep 10, 2016 at 10:46
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @BeastlyGerbil Malar $\endgroup$
    – user14478
    Sep 10, 2016 at 10:59
  • $\begingroup$ @BeastlyGerbil: anagram-solver.net seems to solve both and probably all words. $\endgroup$
    – user27395
    Sep 10, 2016 at 12:49
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    $\begingroup$ @samm82, editing old Word(tm) puzzles is less useful than other kinds of puzzles which need Markdown table-fying, as Lukas Rotter is automating fixing up old Word(tm) puzzles. $\endgroup$
    – bobble
    Jan 16, 2021 at 4:14
  • $\begingroup$ @bobble I just saw the out-of-place "word" tag and thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. Thanks for letting me know! $\endgroup$
    – samm82
    Jan 16, 2021 at 4:16

1 Answer 1

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An Anagrammable Word™ is a word that ...

... can be combined with one of the typical anagram indicators (or anagrind) for cryptic crossword clues to form a common phrase or expression:

false alarm
wild animal
mixed blessing
bad blood ✻
scrambled eggs
Mad Hatter
broken heart ✻
mixed fraction ✻
odd one out
random sampling ✻
irregular verb ✻

(I had other, less satisfying alternatives for the ones marked with ✻. The OP has shared the intended answers in the comments, so I've updated them.)

Note:

An Anagrammable Word™ is not required to be a suitable anagram fodder that yields other words. For example, EGGS does not anagram to anything useful. So the quality of being Anagrammable™ does not rely on being an anagram of something, only on forming fixed expressions with anagram indicators.

(There are two questions on PSE that use anagrams to define two of the expressions here: mixed blessing and scrambled eggs, but in my opinion neither is very good, because the resulting anagrams are not really words. Plus, these clues lack definitions.)

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  • $\begingroup$ You're good at solving these $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Sep 10, 2016 at 13:31
  • $\begingroup$ Very nice! My original intentions for some of them were : (rot13) onq oybbq, oebxra urneg, zvkrq senpgvba, enaqbz fnzcyvat, veerthyne ireo. $\endgroup$
    – Ankoganit
    Sep 10, 2016 at 14:28
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, these are all better, especially broken heart and mixed fraction, which now seem obvious. They are also all adjectives, which makes for a nicer pattern. $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Sep 10, 2016 at 14:31

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