The acrostic is a form of embellishment used in the Bible and later in piyyut, spelling out the alphabet or the name of the author using the first letters of lines or verses. Various forms exist.

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Acrostic, from Greek ἄκρος (highest, topmost) and στίχος (verse), is a form of embellishment used in Hebrew texts since the Bible (all chapters of Lamentations, Psalms 25, 34, 111, 112, 119, and 145, Proverbs 31:10-31), in which verses or stanzas begin with letters that can be read as a unit. Biblical acrostics are alphabetic, sometimes imperfect, and - in …