Word of the Day

: October 11, 2022

mnemonic

play
adjective nih-MAH-nik

What It Means

Mnemonic means “assisting or intended to assist memory” or “of or relating to a technique for improving one's memory.” It also has a broader sense meaning “of or relating to memory.”

// James taught his students the mnemonic sentence “King Philip Came Over For Good Spaghetti” to help them remember the levels of biological classification (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species).

See the entry >

mnemonic in Context

“Restoring Indigenous place names restores mnemonic and spiritual connections among place, culture and ancestral knowledge.” — Bonnie McGill, Scientific American, 22 Apr. 2022


Did You Know?

Need a mnemonic device to remember how to spell mnemonic? Although the word’s pronunciation begins with an n sound, the spelling begins with an m, as in memory. There are very few English words that start this way (mnestic and mnioid are two others), and as with similar Latin and Greek borrowings such as pneumonia, we retained the double initial consonant but not the pronunciation. In addition to its adjectival use, mnemonic is also a noun used to refer to a mnemonic device, such as the famous—or infamous—spelling dictum “I before E, except after C,” which isn't consistently helpful (just ask your neighbor to weigh in on it).



Test Your Vocabulary

Fill in the blanks to complete a word for something that serves as a reminder: t _ c _ l _ r.

VIEW THE ANSWER

Podcast


More Words of the Day

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!