paracrostic means A poetical composition, in which the first verse contains, in order, the first letters of all the verses of the poem. It carries an Arena rating of 1396, earned across 76 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, paracrostic ranks #2,191 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #3,211 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #5,070 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #6,698 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say.
Why “paracrostic” is a great word
PARACROSTIC — [Noun] A poetical composition in which the first verse contains, in order, the first letters of all the subsequent verses. Formed within English by derivation from the combining form para- (meaning "beside, alongside, or altered") and the noun acrostic (a poem or text in which certain letters spell out a name or message). Unlike an acrostic, which builds its hidden word from the initial letters of each line, or a mesostich, which draws its secret from the middles of verses, a paracrostic presents its entire encoded sequence in its inaugural line. It is the architect's blueprint woven into the foundation stone, the single strand of melody from which the entire fugue unfolds, the seed containing the precise genetic sequence of the entire tree—a quiet testament to the whole faithfully implied by a carefully crafted part.
Etymology
From para- + acrostic.
noun
- A poetical composition, in which the first verse contains, in order, the first letters of all the verses of the poem.e.g.“the original Sibylline verses the head is but little distinct from the body , but always were paracrostics” — 1847, William Thomas Brande, A Dictionary of Science, Literature and Art:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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