acrostic

== English == === Etymology === 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”)). === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /əˈkɹɒstɪk/ (General American) IPA(key): /əˈkɹɔstɪk/ (cot–caught merger) IPA(key): /əˈkɹɑstɪk/ Rhymes: -ɒstɪk, -ɔːstɪk Hyphenation: acros‧tic === Noun === acrostic (plural acrostics) (also attributively) A poem or other text in which certain letters, often the first in each line, spell out a name or message. [from 16th c.] A poem in Hebrew in which successive lines or verses start with consecutive letters of the alphabet. 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. ==== Alternative forms ==== acrostick, acrosticke (obsolete) ==== Hyponyms ==== telestich word square ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Descendants ==== → Irish: acrastach ==== Translations ==== === Adjective === acrostic (comparative more acrostic, superlative most acrostic) Of or pertaining to acrostics. ==== Alternative forms ==== acrostick, acrosticke (obsolete) ==== Translations ==== === See also === acronym acrophony === References === === Further reading === acrostic on Wikipedia.Wikipedia acrostic (puzzle) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia === Anagrams === Racicots, Ritaccos, Socratic, sarcotic