Definition of ACROSTIC

acrostic

Meanings

Plural: acrostics

Noun

  • a puzzle where you fill a square grid with words reading the same down as across
  • verse in which certain letters such as the first in each line form a word or message
  • A poem or other text in which certain letters, often the first in each line, spell out a name or message.
  • 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.

Adj

  • Of or pertaining to acrostics.

Origin / 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”)).

Synonyms

word square

Scrabble Score: 12

acrostic is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
acrostic is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
acrostic is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 14

acrostic is a valid Words With Friends word