Added 9 October 2026
acrostic
/əˈkɹɒstɪk/ noun
Latin root: acrostichis Wiktionary
noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about acrostic at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
- A poem or other text in which certain letters, often the first in each line, spell out a name or message. .mw-parser-output .defdate{font-size:smaller}
- 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.
adjective
- Of or pertaining to acrostics.
Origin
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”)).
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)