Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definitions: Acrostic |
AcrosticNoun1. A puzzle where you fill a square grid with words reading the same down as across. 2. Verse in which certain letters such as the first in each line form a word or message. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "acrostic" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1841. (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Literature | Acrostic (Greek, akros stichos) The term was first applied to the verses of the Erythræan sibyl, written on leaves. These prophecies were excessively obscure, but were so contrived that when the leaves were sorted and laid in order, their initial letters always made a word. - Dionys., iv. 62. Acrostic poetry among the Hebrews consisted of twenty-two lines or stanzas beginning with the letters of the alphabet in succession, as Psalm cxix., etc. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
An acrostic is a poem or some other text written in an alphabetic script, in which the first letter of each verse, paragraph, or some other recurring feature in the text spells out another message.
Acrostics may simply spell out the letters of the alphabet in order; these acrostics occur in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and in certain of the Psalms of the Hebrew Bible. Or, the acrostic may spell out a name or some other message, such as the acrostic contained in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, where the letters of the acrostic are embellished with ornate capital letters. Or, the acrostic may be used as a form of steganography, seeking to conceal the message rather than to proclaim it.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Acrostic."
Synonym: AcrosticSynonym: word square (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Wit | Word-play, jeu de mots; play of words, play upon words; pun, punning; double entente, double entendre; (ambiguity); quibble, verbal quibble; conundrum; (riddle); anagram, acrostic, double acrostic, trifling, idle conceit, turlupinade. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Acrostic |
| English words defined with "acrostic": Acrostically ♦ Double acrostic ♦ Pentacrostic ♦ Telestich. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "acrostic": A.B.C. Process ♦ Dogs. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "acrostic": Paracrostic, Pentacrostic. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Emma | Austen, Jane | I had an acrostic once sent to me upon my own name, which I was not at all pleased with. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Acrostic" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Acrostic" is used about 3 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 3 | 202,518 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "acrostic": Double acrostic. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
acrostic poem | 115 |
acrostic | 24 |
acrostic poetry | 13 |
acrostic puzzle | 7 |
acrostic name poem | 5 |
acrostic collection journey lyrics poem | 4 |
acrostic love poem | 4 |
acrostic quote | 3 |
acrostic father | 3 |
acrostic day father poem | 3 |
acrostic name | 3 |
acrostic example poem | 2 |
acrostic poem write | 2 |
acrostic good poem | 2 |
acrostic double | 2 |
acrostic day father | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "acrostic"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | akrostish. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | قصيدة ذات ترتيب خاص, سلسلة كلمات متساوية الطول. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | акростих. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | منکسر, نامنظم (Erratic), توشیحی , جابجاشونده (Migratory, Revulsive). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | acrostiche (achrostic). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | ακροστιχίδα. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | akrosztikon, versfõkbe rejtett. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | acrostico. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 折り句 (acrostic poetry). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | おりく (acrostic poetry). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | acrostagh. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | acrosticay acróstico (achrostic). (various references) acrostih. (various references) акростих. (various references) akrostih. (various references) acróstico. (various references) akrostikon. (various references) akrostiş. (various references) акростих. (various references) theo thể thơ chữ đầu. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "acrostic": acrostical, acrostically, acrostics. (additional references) | |
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"Acrostic" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: accostic, accrostic, acratic, acrorst, acrost, acroustic, macrocytic, Marostica, Mccrostie. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-c-i-o-r-s-t" | |
-1 letter: acrotic, arctics. | |
-2 letters: accost, actors, aorist, aortic, arctic, aristo, castor, coacts, coatis, corsac, costar, crista, racist, ratios, satori, scoria, scotia, scrota, tarocs, triacs. | |
-3 letters: actor, airts, ascot, astir, cacti, carts, circa, cisco, coact, coast, coati, coats, cocas, coirs, coria, costa, croci, crocs, iotas, orcas, ostia, ratio, ratos, riots, roast, rotas, rotis, scart, sitar, stair, stoai, stoic, stria, tacos, taroc, taros, tarsi, tiros, toras, torcs, toric, torsi, triac, trios, trois. | |
-4 letters: acts, airs, airt, aits, arco, arcs, arts, asci, cars, cart, cast, cats, ciao, cist, coat, coca, coir, cors, cost, cots, cris, croc, iota, oars, oast, oats, ocas, orca, orcs, orts, osar, otic, rato, rats, rias, riot, rocs, rota, roti, rots, sari, sati, scar, scat, scot, soar, sora, sori, sort, star, stir, stoa, taco, taos, taro, tars, tics, tiro, tora, torc, tori, tors, trio, tsar. | |
-5 letters: act, air, ais, ait, arc, ars, art, car, cat, cis, cor, cos, cot, its, oar, oat, oca, ora, orc, ors, ort, ras, rat, ria, roc, rot, sac, sat, sic, sir, sit, sot, sri, tao, tar, tas, tic, tis, tor. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-c-i-o-r-s-t" | |
+1 letter: acrostics, narcotics, trochaics. | |
+2 letters: accretions, acrobatics, acrostical, anorectics, astrocytic, capacitors, chromatics, cryostatic, desiccator, escharotic, octarchies. | |
+3 letters: aristocracy, autocracies, buccinators, circulators, cockatrices, concertinas, confiscator, contradicts, coruscating, coruscation, desiccators, escharotics, inculcators, obscurantic, pyroclastic, subcortical, theocracies, timocracies, vaccinators. | |
+4 letters: accordionist, acrocentrics, acrostically, anacreontics, aristocratic, arthroscopic, bacteriocins, brecciations, cardiotonics, catastrophic, chocolatiers, chromaticism, circulations, coadjutrices, coarctations, conciliators, confiscators, confiscatory, consecrating, consecration, consecrative, contractions, contrivances, coruscations, decorticates, exorcistical, gastroscopic, macrocytosis, mesothoracic, microcrystal, narcoleptics, pacificators, pantisocracy, physiocratic, plutocracies, prostacyclin, reciprocates, stereotactic, transoceanic. | |
+5 letters: accelerations, accordionists, anachronistic, antiscorbutic, aristocracies, backcountries, calefactories, carcinomatous, chalcopyrites, chiaroscurist, chiropractics, chiropractors, chloroplastic, chromaticisms, clavichordist, coacervations, coconspirator, combinatorics, commercialist, communicators, consecrations, contradictors, cotransducing, counterclaims, crosshatching, decorticators, ectoparasitic, electrostatic, excruciations, idiosyncratic, meritocracies, microcassette, microclimates, microcrystals, nonarchitects, pantisocratic, plantocracies, pococurantism, prophylactics, prostacyclins, reciprocators, reoccupations, sacrosanctity, scarification, sociocultural, stratocracies, technocracies, transthoracic. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)41 63 72 6F 73 74 69 63 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).- -.-. .-. --- ... - .. -.-. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000001 01100011 01110010 01101111 01110011 01110100 01101001 01100011 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)A c r o s t i c |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0041 0063 0072 006F 0073 0074 0069 0063 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)3569848185867569 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Fiction 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Derivations 11. Anagrams 12. Orthography | 13. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
