acrostic
Syllables: acros·tic/əˈkɹɒstɪk//əˈkɹɔstɪk/
acrostic noun: a poem or other text in which certain letters, often the first in each line, spell out a name or message.
Noun
acrostic (plural acrostics)
- A poem or other text in which certain letters, often the first in each line, spell out a name or message.
- He [Judas Maccabeus] was termed Mackabæus, becauſe he carried in his ſtandard, or vexillum militare, theſe four Hebrew letters, Mem, Chaph, Beth, and Jod, or M. C. B. and J. whereunto their points being added, which are their vowells, (for others they have none) his mott was Mackabai, whereof he...1600 December 7, Abraham Hartwell, “Nº LXXXV. Of the Same [i.e., Of the Antiquity, Variety, and Reason of Motts, with Arms of Noblemen and Gentlemen in England].”, in Thomas Hearne, editor, A...
- I have written an acroſticke ſonet to his Maieſtie, a canzonet to the Queene, and another acroſticke unto the Prince; whoſe ſervant I am by vow, and ſubordinate ſubject by birth.1603, Hugh Holland, “To Sir Robert Cotton, Knight, Lord of Cunnington”, in Pancharis: The First Booke. Containing the Preparation of the Loue betweene Ovven Tudyr, and the Queene, long since Intended...
- A poem in Hebrew in which successive lines or verses start with consecutive letters of the alphabet.
- The Whole [of the Book of Zephaniah] is wrote in a very lively, tender, and pathetic Stile; and all the Chapters, except the laſt, (which ſeems to have been of later Compoſition than the reſt) are in Acroſtick Verſe, i.e. every Line, or Couplet, begins, in an Alphabetical Order, with ſome Letter in...1744, Thomas Stackhouse, “From the Death of Josiah to the Babylonish Captivity”, in A New History of the Holy Bible, from the Beginning of the World, to the Establishment of Christianity. […], 2nd...
- Each of the five chapters of the Lamentations contains a distinct elegy, according to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. And in the first four chapters the versification resembles acrostics. In the three first chapters each verse consists of three lines, and the initial letters of each...1837, George R[apall] Noyes, “Notes on Lamentations”, in A New Translation of the Hebrew Prophets, Arranged in Chronological Order, volume II (Containing Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Obadiah...
- A kind of word puzzle, whose solution forms an anagram of a quotation, with its initial letters often forming the name of the person quoted.
- those who rack their brains in solving the Acrostics in our Sunday papers will, perchance, be saved many a rack and many a failure by our reverse alphabetical arrangement1924, Lawrence H. Dawson, “Preface”, in John Walker, The Rhyming Dictionary of The English Language, London / New York: George Routledge and Sons / E. P. Dutton and Co., page vi
- For those of you who are new to acrostics, here is what to do. Your goal is to figure out the quote in the grid. […] Reading down the first letter of each answer spells the name of the author and the title of the work from which the quote was taken.2003, Anne Brown, “Introduction”, in Challenging Acrostic Puzzles, New York, N.Y.: Sterling Publishing Co., →ISBN, page 5
- A kind of word puzzle in which a series of words are clued, and individual letters from the clued word spell out one or more additional words.
Adjective
acrostic (comparative more acrostic, superlative most acrostic)
- Of or pertaining to acrostics.
- Other ancients have suggested that the original verses were written in hieroglyphs and also mentioned the acrostic code.1998, Deborah J. Bennett, Randomness, Harvard University Press, page 42
acrostic meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Tagalog
acrostic in Tamil
- கரந்துறை பாட்டு, கவிதை, இயலாக, இசையாக, தகுதி
acrostic in Malayalam
- ഗൂഢാക്ഷരശ്ലോകം, സൂത്രാക്ഷരശ്ലോകം, ഒരു തരം പദസമസ്യ
acrostic in Tagalog
- poem or text in which certain letters spell out a name or message
- akrostik
Examples of acrostic in a sentence
- I have seen tory acrostics and whig anagrams, and do not quarrel with either of them, because they are whigs or tories, but because they are anagrams and acrostics.1711 May 20 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “WEDNESDAY, May 10, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 61...
- But ſhould this Method fail, recourſe might be had to others more effectual, by Learned Men called Acroſticks and Anagrams.1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Further Account of the Academy. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […]...
- It is an acrostic, the first letters of each line forming the words "Oliver Hill of Shilston."1822, Daniel Lysons, Samuel Lysons, “Modbury”, in Magna Britannia; being a Concise Topographical Account of the Several Counties of Great...
- I produced charade upon charade, rebus upon rebus, and acrostick upon acrostick, to the admiration of every body except my parents.1828 March 1, “Confessions over a Bottle”, in The Paisley Magazine, volume I, number 3, Paisley, Renfrewshire: David Dick, →OCLC, page 109:
Forms of acrostic
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | acrostics |
| alternative form | acrostick |
| alternative form | acrosticke |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more acrostic |
| superlative | most acrostic |
Origin of acrostic
Borrowed from Middle French acrostiche, acrostique (“acrostic”) (modern French acrostiche), and its etymon Late Latin acrostichis, from Ancient Greek ἀκροστιχίς (akrostikhís), from ἄκρο- (ákro-, prefix indicating, among other things, the extremity or tip of something) + στῐ́χος (stĭ́khos, “row or file of soldiers; line of poetry, verse”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steygʰ- (“to climb, go”)).
Words formed from acrostic
Words that rhyme with acrostic
Questions about acrostic
- What does acrostic mean?
- Acrostic means a poem or other text in which certain letters, often the first in each line, spell out a name or message.
- What is acrostic in Tamil?
- Acrostic in Tamil is கரந்துறை பாட்டு, கவிதை, இயலாக. See Acrostic meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use acrostic in a sentence?
- I have seen tory acrostics and whig anagrams, and do not quarrel with either of them, because they are whigs or tories, but because they are anagrams and acrostics.
- What part of speech is acrostic?
- Acrostic can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce acrostic?
- Acrostic is pronounced /əˈkɹɒstɪk/ (UK).
- What is the plural of acrostic?
- The plural of acrostic is acrostics.
Words near acrostic in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: acrostic (page history and authors); acrostic (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); acrostic (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-acrostic.oga, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Knabrupt-acrostic.wav.
Cite this entry: “acrostic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/acrostic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.