Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In the development of alphabetic writing, the use of a symbolic picture of an object or idea to represent phonetically the initial syllable, or the initial sound, of the name of that object or idea; as in giving to the Egyptian hieroglyph for nefer, good, the phonetic value of ne, its first syllable, or of n, its first letter. See acrology.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The use of a picture symbol of an object to represent phonetically the initial sound of the name of the object.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Naming letters in an alphabetic writing system using words whose initial sounds are represented by the respective letters.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun naming a letter of the alphabet by using a word whose initial sound is the sound represented by that letter

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ἄκρος (acros, "uppermost, beginning") + φωνή (phōnē, "sound"). acro- + -phony

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Examples

  • The assumption is that they developed a Semitic script based on acrophony, where the first sound of the Semitic name of an Egyptian glyph came to be the value of that glyph.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Rehabilitating Pharaoh 2010

  • The assumption is that they developed a Semitic script based on acrophony, where the first sound of the Semitic name of an Egyptian glyph came to be the value of that glyph.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Rehabilitating Pharaoh 2010

  • - Astronomy, happening at sunset, especially of star whose rising is at sunset. acrophony

    xml's Blinklist.com 2008

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