Acrostic vs. Crossword — What's the Difference?

An acrostic is a poem (or other form of writing) in which the first letter (or syllable, or word) of each line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The word comes from the French acrostiche from post-classical Latin acrostichis, from Koine Greek ἀκροστιχίς, from Ancient Greek ἄκρος "highest, topmost" and στίχος "verse".

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 game's goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues, which lead to the answers.

A poem, word puzzle, or other composition in which certain letters in each line form a word or words.

A puzzle in which an arrangement of numbered squares is to be filled with words running both across and down in answer to correspondingly numbered clues. Also called crossword puzzle.

A poem or series of lines in which certain letters, usually the first in each line, form a name, motto, or message when read in sequence.

A word puzzle in which interlocking words are entered usually horizontally and vertically into a grid based on clues given for each word.

See word square.

The grid of such a puzzle

A word puzzle in which the answers to several different clues form an anagram of a quotation, phrase, or other text.

A puzzle in which words corresponding to numbered clues are to be found and written in to squares in the puzzle

A poem or other text in which certain letters, often the first in each line, spell out a name or message.

A poem in Hebrew in which successive lines or verses start with consecutive letters of the alphabet.

A kind of word puzzle, the solution of which forms an anagram of a quotation, and their initials often form the name of its author.

Of or pertaining to acrostics.

A composition, usually in verse, in which the first or the last letters of the lines, or certain other letters, taken in order, form a name, word, phrase, or motto.

A Hebrew poem in which the lines or stanzas begin with the letters of the alphabet in regular order (as Psalm cxix.). See Abecedarian.

Pertaining to, or characterized by, acrostics.

A puzzle where you fill a square grid with words reading the same down as across

Verse in which certain letters such as the first in each line form a word or message