How to Use Acrostic Mnemonics

An acrostic mnemonic is a sentence or poem where the first letter (or letters) of each part of the text represents a thing that you’re trying to memorize.

An acrostic can be used as a mnemonic device to help you remember things better.

There are several ways to create acrostic mnemonics:

1. Use the first letter of each word.
2. Use the first letter of each syllable.
3. Use the first letter of each sentence.

Scroll down to see some examples.

Examples of Acrostics

Here are some examples of acrostic mnemonics:

1. Order of Operations in Math

To remember the order of operations in math, you can use the acrostic, “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally”. The first letter of each word represents an operator:

• Parentheses
• Exponents
• Multiplication
• Division
• Addition
• Subtraction

2. Remembering Planet Names

There’s a useful mnemonic for remembering planets.

You can remember the planet names with this acrostic sentence:

• My
• Very
• Excellent
• Mother
• Just
• Served
• Us
• Nachos

The first letter of each word represents the first letter of each planet:

• Mercury
• Venus
• Earth
• Mars
• Jupiter
• Saturn
• Uranus
• Neptune

3. Cranial Bones Acrostic

An acrostic mnemonic for the names of the cranial bones is “Old People From Texas Eat Spiders”, which stands for:

• Occipital
• Parietal
• Frontal
• Temporal
• Ethmoid
• Sphenoid

4. Remembering the Colors of the Rainbow

The acrostic “Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain” can be used to remember the colors of the rainbow:

• Red
• Orange
• Yellow
• Green
• Blue
• Indigo
• Violet

Learn More

Learn about the difference between acrostics and acronyms, browse our list of memory techniques for studying, build a memory palace, learn how to memorize vocabulary, and discover why photographic memory doesn’t exist.