Crack a stack of clues and watch the first letter of each answer line up to reveal a secret saying.
Each numbered clue points to a single word. Type your answer for every clue, and the leading letters, read top to bottom, spell out the day's hidden phrase.
The word is Greek by way of Latin and French: acrostic descends through post-classical Latin acrostichis from Koine Greek ἀκροστιχίς, built from ἄκρος, "topmost", and στίχος, "verse". The name describes the mechanism exactly — the message lives at the top of each line.
It is a form of constrained writing older than most, and it has a mirror image. When the message is spelled by the last letters rather than the first it is a telestich; a composition carrying both at once is a double acrostic.
Its practical use has always sat alongside its literary one. Because a hidden initial sequence gives a text a second, checkable structure, the acrostic works as a mnemonic — which is why it survives in classrooms long after most constrained forms became curiosities.
Acrostic is an original free browser word puzzle in the deduction-and-vocabulary tradition, blending crossword-style clues with a hidden-message reveal. No download or sign-up required.