Branching/Progressive Anagrams

The branching anagram is a method devised, as far as I know, by Stanley Collins in 1920 and has been tinkered with by numerous thinkers over the years. The principle at the core of the method is that a person can think of a word, and as long as there are a limited number of options to choose from, by discovering which letters are present in the word they chose, their word can be determined.

See:

The Prodigal by Atlas Brookings

https://thejerx.squarespace.com/blog/2016/10/5/transgressive-anagrams