acrostic

English

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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

acrostic

  • /əˈkɹɒstɪk/ UK
  • /əˈkɹɔstɪk/ US
  • /əˈkɹɑstɪk/ cot caught merger

Rhymes with -ɒstɪk, -ɔːstɪk

Where it comes from

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”)).

noun acrostics · acrostick · acrosticke · crostic

  1. also, attributive 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 too
  2. also, attributive 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
  3. also, attributive 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 arrangement
  4. also, attributive 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 more acrostic · most acrostic · acrostick · acrosticke

  1. also, attributive Of or pertaining to acrostics. Other ancients have suggested that the original verses were written in hieroglyphs and also mentioned the acrostic code.

Translations

Every language

noun poem or text in which certain letters spell out a name or message

Españolacróstico
한국어아크로스틱 akeuroseutik
中文藏頭詩 /藏头诗 cángtóushī
Portuguêsacróstico
Françaisacrostiche
DeutschAkrostichon
Italianoacrostico
Ελληνικάακροστιχίδα akrostichída
Românăacrostih
Русскийакрости́х akrostíx

noun poem in Hebrew in which successive lines or verses start with consecutive letters of the alphabet

עבריתאקרוסטיכון akrostichon, חתימה chatima

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Cite this
MLA

"acrostic." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/acrostic. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

acrostic. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/acrostic

Chicago

"acrostic." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/acrostic.

BibTeX
@misc{acrostic_2026,
  title = {acrostic},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/acrostic},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}