Five words our anagram solvers use that you might not know

Part of the appeal of anagram rooms is that they return obscure words to circulation. Rare words that would never appear in ordinary conversation turn up naturally when the letters happen to be right, and suddenly twenty people in a room learn something new together.

SPAIL is a thin chip or splinter of wood or stone. It comes up surprisingly often with certain letter combinations and is one of those words that, once known, shows up in old texts in a way it never did before.

GERNE is an archaic verb meaning to yearn or desire. It is almost never used in modern writing, but it is in most large dictionaries and is a legitimate play in all but the strictest competition-grade rooms.

CULM is coal dust or slack, and also a grass stalk. The double meaning makes it a useful word to know — it has appeared in clue-based crossword rounds more than once and always rewards the player who recognises it without a hint.

TERCE is the third canonical hour in monastic tradition, and also a set of three things. It rounds out a useful group of short, unusual words that turn up in letter-rich rounds and reward quiet knowledge over speed.

NAEVI are birthmarks — the plural of naevus. It plays well in anagram sets with N, A, E, V and I, and the players who know it well tend to be regulars who have been around long enough to have seen it land once before.