An acrostic is a type of

word puzzle Word games (also called word game puzzles or word search games) are spoken, board, or video games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties. Word games are generally used as a source of entertainment, but can ad ...

, related somewhat to

crossword puzzle A crossword is a word puzzle that usually takes the form of a square or a rectangular grid of white- and black-shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answ ...

s, that uses an acrostic form. It typically consists of two parts. The first part is a set of lettered clues, each of which has numbered blanks representing the letters of the answer. The second part is a long series of numbered blanks and spaces, representing a quotation or other text, into which the answers for the clues fit. In some forms of the puzzle, the first letters of each correct clue answer, read in order from clue A on down the list, will spell out the author of the quote and the title of the work it is taken from; this can be used as an additional solving aid.

An example

For example, two clues in the first part might be: The second part is initially blank: If the answer to clue ''A'' is ''JAPAN'', then the second part fills in as follows: {, cellspacing=8 , - align=center , , _, , A, , _, , _, , , , A, , _, , _, , , , J, , _, , _, , _, , , , _, , _, , N, , _, , , , _, , P, , , , _, , _, , _, , , , _, , _, , _, , _ , - align=center , , 1, , 2, , 3, , 4, , , , 5, , 6, , 7, , , , 8, , 9, , 10, , 11, , , , 12, , 13, , 14, , 15, , , , 16, , 17, , , , 18, , 19, , 20, , , , 21, , 22, , 23, , 24 Letters 16 and 17 form a two-letter word ending in ''P''. Since this has to be ''UP'', letter 16 is a ''U'', which can be filled into the appropriate clue answer in the list of clues. Likewise, a three-letter word starting with ''A'' could be ''and'', ''any'', ''all'', or even a proper name like ''Ann''. One might need more clue answers before daring to guess which it could be. If the answer to clue ''B'' is ''IDLE'', one could narrow down the 5/6/7 word to ''AND'' and the following word starting with ''JI''. Some people might already begin to recognize the phrase "Jack and Jill went up the hill." The numbers in the quotation are generally followed by letters corresponding to the clue answers, to aid solvers in working back and forth from the clues to the puzzle.

History

Elizabeth Kingsley is credited with inventing the puzzle for '' Saturday Review'' in 1934, under the name double-crostic. Since then, other

nonce words A nonce word (also called an occasionalism) is a lexeme created for a single occasion to solve an immediate problem of communication.''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language''. Ed. David Crystal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press ...

ending in "-crostic" have been used. Anacrostic may be the most accurate term used, and hence most common, as it is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsanagram and acrostic, referencing the fact that the solution is an anagram of the clue answers, and the author of the quote is hidden in the clue answers acrostically. Later ''Saturday Review'' constructors were Doris Nash Wortman, Thomas Middleton, and Barry Tunick. Thomas Middleton also produced many puzzles for '' Harpers Magazine''. Kingsley, Wortman, and Middleton created additional puzzles for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' from 1952–1999, but not more than one every other week. Emily Cox and

Henry Rathvon Henry Rathvon is a puzzle writer. He and his partner, Emily Cox, wrote The Atlantic Puzzler, a cryptic crossword featured each month in the magazine ''The Atlantic Monthly'' from September 1977 to October 2009. (After March 2006, the Puzzler was ...

took over the bi-weekly setting duties for the NYT in 1999. A similar puzzle, called a Trans-O-Gram, by Svend Petersen, and later, Kem Putney, appeared in ''

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief ...

'' from 1963–1993. Trans-O-Grams were often themed puzzles, with clues related to the quote. The name Duo-Crostic was used by the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' for puzzles by Barry Tunick and Sylvia Bursztyn. Charles Preston created Quote-Acrostics for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. Charles Duerr, who died in 1999, authored many "Dur-acrostic" books and was a contributor of acrostics to the Saturday Review. Michael Ashley's "Double Cross" acrostics have appeared in ''GAMES'' and ''

GAMES World of Puzzles ''GAMES World of Puzzles'' is a puzzle magazine formed from the merger of Games and World of Puzzles in October 2014. The entire magazine interior is now newsprint (as opposed to the part-glossy/part-newsprint format of the original ''Games'') an ...

'' since 1978. Writer and academic Isaac Asimov enjoyed acrostics, comparing them favorably to crossword puzzles. In "Yours, Isaac Asimov", published 3 years after his 1992 death, he wrote, "As it happens, I don’t... have time for hobbies. But I am a fiend at Crostics. Crostics don’t have the public that crosswords do, because Crostics seem hard. They aren’t, and they’re infinitely more interesting than crosswords."

An example

History

External links