--- title: "Hard anagram magic squares: free printable with answers" description: "Free printable hard anagram magic squares with answers. The grade where the row and column sums stop being a check and start being a step." source: "https://www.oncebooks.com/anagram-magic-square/hard" --- 1. [Home](https://www.oncebooks.com/) 2. [Anagram magic square](https://www.oncebooks.com/anagram-magic-square) 3. Hard Free printable # Hard anagram magic squares A hard anagram magic square is a 4 by 4 with two things the easier grades do not have: about thirty near-misses, entries sharing four of a box’s five letters, and one box that genuinely fits two entries. The letters cannot choose between those two. The row and the column can, because swapping two numbers in a magic square always breaks a line. PuzzleDesign Difficulty A harder grade is a bigger grid, and more entries that share four of a box’s five letters so you have to count rather than recognise. The top two grades also leave one box that genuinely fits two entries, settled only by the row and column sums. 4 × 4 grid, 16 words, every line summing to 34. Each entry uses all five letters of one box plus one more. Write its number in that box, and read the letters you added in entry order. Theme ClassicBoldSoftShadedNavyIndigoSkyTealEmeraldForestPlumBerryCrimsonEmberAmberCocoa **Customise colours** Letters Frame Found-word mark Page background Style StandardClean Clean drops the title band and footer, leaving the grid. Generate puzzlePrint / save PDF Two pages: the puzzle and its answer, with the hidden saying. Every puzzle is proved to have exactly one solution by the same engine as our KDP studio. ## Want the whole book? This makes one puzzle. Sign up to turn it into a full anagram magic square book for Amazon KDP: hundreds of graded puzzles at any trim, as print-ready PDFs. [Build the full book](https://app.oncebooks.com/publisher-studio/anagram-magic-square/edit?from=anagram-magic-square&v=2&s=eyJkaWZmaWN1bHR5IjoiSEFSRCIsImNvbG9yVGhlbWUiOnsidGhlbWVJZCI6ImNsYXNzaWMiLCJvdmVycmlkZXMiOnt9fX0) Free to build · pay once to export Preview The puzzle and its answer, as they print. Hide the preview - Anagram Magic Square Hard Each entry below uses all five letters of one box plus one more. Write its number in that box; every row, column and diagonal then sums to 34. The added letters, in entry order, spell a saying. 1. TEASER 2. SHOVEL 3. CREATE 4. CLOSER 5. UPSHOT 6. EITHER 7. STRAIN 8. GARNET 9. SEARCH 10. EASTER 11. CORNET 12. GENDER 13. PHRASE 14. DEALER 15. STRING 16. HORNET 1 Puzzle - Anagram Magic Square Hard · Solution Each entry below uses all five letters of one box plus one more. Write its number in that box; every row, column and diagonal then sums to 34. The added letters, in entry order, spell a saying. 1. TEASER 2. SHOVEL 3. CREATE 4. CLOSER 5. UPSHOT 6. EITHER 7. STRAIN 8. GARNET 9. SEARCH 10. EASTER 11. CORNET 12. GENDER 13. PHRASE 14. DEALER 15. STRING 16. HORNET A HELPING HAND HERE 2 Solution Generate puzzlePrint / save PDF ## How to solve an anagram magic square Every box holds a five-letter word, and every entry in the numbered list is a six-letter word that uses all five of one box’s letters plus one more. Write each entry’s number in its box; the numbers come out a magic square, and the letters you added spell a saying. ### The method 1. Work from the list, not the grid. Take entry one and ask which box’s five letters are all inside it. That is a smaller question than looking at a box and wondering which of twenty-five entries might fit, and it is the same question twenty-five times, which is what makes the puzzle move. 2. Check the fifth letter, not the first four. Most wrong matches share four of the five. STONE is in STONES and it is not in STORED, and the only way to tell is to account for every letter rather than recognising the shape of the word. On the harder grades there are sixty of these near-misses on one page, which is most of the work. 3. Write the added letter down as you go. Beside entry one, write the letter the entry has that its box does not. Do it while the comparison is in front of you rather than at the end. Those letters, read in entry order, spell a saying, and a wrong match shows up as a saying that stops reading, which is the best check you have. 4. Let the sums finish it. From the hard grade up, one box genuinely fits two entries and the letters cannot choose. Look at the row and the column it sits in: only one of the two numbers lets both reach the target, because swapping two numbers in a magic square always breaks a line. That is the step the arithmetic is there for. **The one rule people get wrong** The letters of the box need not appear in the entry in order: they are an anagram, not a prefix. ONSET is five of the six letters of STONES just as much as STONE is. Sort the letters if it helps. **What the answer page shows** The same grid with every number written in, and the saying printed under the word list, so you can check the letters you collected against it. **How the grades differ** The grid, from a 3 by 3 up to a 6 by 6, which is also how long the hidden saying is. The harder grades add near-misses on purpose, and the top two leave a box the letters cannot settle. **Do the sums matter on the easy grades?** They are a check rather than a step. On easy and medium the letters settle every box on their own, so the magic square is how you find a mistake. From hard up it is doing real work: we measured it, and the letters alone leave two arrangements open at hard and four at evil. **Is it the same as a magic square?** It contains one. A plain magic square is arithmetic only, and you are given some of the numbers; here you are given none of them, and the words are what tell you where each number goes. **Good for** Anyone who likes word puzzles but misses having something to add up. ## Making a whole anagram magic square book? This page makes one puzzle. To publish a book on Amazon KDP, the [KDP anagram magic square maker](https://www.oncebooks.com/kdp-anagram-magic-square-maker) generates hundreds of graded puzzles at any trim, as a print-ready 300 DPI interior and answers PDF. ## More printable anagram magic squares - [Easy anagram magic squares](https://www.oncebooks.com/anagram-magic-square/easy) - [Medium anagram magic squares](https://www.oncebooks.com/anagram-magic-square/medium) - [Expert anagram magic squares](https://www.oncebooks.com/anagram-magic-square/expert) - [Evil anagram magic squares](https://www.oncebooks.com/anagram-magic-square/evil) - [Anagram magic squares for beginners](https://www.oncebooks.com/anagram-magic-square/for-beginners) - [Word and number puzzles in one grid](https://www.oncebooks.com/anagram-magic-square/word-and-number) [See every printable anagram magic square](https://www.oncebooks.com/anagram-magic-square) ## Questions **Are these hard anagram magic squares free to print?** Yes. Generate the puzzle above and print it with its answer, at no cost and with no sign-up. **How do I know I have it right?** Three ways, and you only need one. Every row, column and diagonal adds to the same total; the letters you added spell a saying when read in entry order; and the filled grid is printed on the second page. **Can I make an anagram magic square book to sell on KDP?** Yes. The free tool makes one puzzle. The KDP anagram magic square maker generates hundreds of graded puzzles at any KDP trim, as a print-ready 300 DPI interior and answers PDF.