acrostic

/əˈkrɔstɪk/

/əˈkrɒstɪk/

Other forms: acrostics

Did you ever compose a poem in which you wrote a word vertically down the page and started each line with one of the letters in that word? That was an acrostic poem.

A word that
Can be spelled so that it
Reads from top to bottom
Or across, as a poem
Sometimes is very clever.
That's an acrostic poem.
It can also refer to a puzzle.
Cool, isn't it?

Definitions of acrostic

1. noun

   verse in which certain letters such as the first in each line form a word or message
   type of:

   literary composition, literary work

   imaginative or creative writing
2. noun

   a puzzle where you fill a square grid with words reading the same down as across
   synonyms: word square

   type of:

   mystifier, puzzle, puzzler, teaser

   a particularly baffling problem that is said to have a correct solution