Acrostic is a noun that refers to a poem, word puzzle or other composition in which certain letters in each line form a word or phrase.

Our word of the day comes from the combination of various Greek words for ‘end,’ ‘row,’ and ‘verse.’ An acrostic is often  a puzzle that someone must figure out, but other times it is a word like ‘scuba,’ which is an acrostic that stands for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. Here’s an example of the word acrostic used in a sentence:

I’ve always been a fan of acrostics. It’s not always easy to figure out the word that is being spelled out, but that’s a big part of the fun.