Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Relating to, assisting, or intended to assist the memory.
  • noun A device, such as a formula or rhyme, used as an aid in remembering.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to memory; especially, assisting or intended to assist the memory: as, mnemonic words; mnemonic lines.
  • noun Same as mnemonics.

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

  • adjective Assisting in memory; helping to remember.
  • noun Something used to assist the memory, as an easily remembered acronym or verse.
  • noun An abbreviated word that resembles the full word, used so as to be easily recognized.

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

  • adjective Of or relating to mnemonics: the study of techniques for remembering anything more easily.
  • noun Anything (especially something in verbal form) used to help remember something.

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

  • noun a device (such as a rhyme or acronym) used to aid recall
  • adjective of or relating to or involved the practice of aiding the memory

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek mnēmonikos, from mnēmōn, mnēmon-, mindful; see men- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From New Latin mnemonicus, from Ancient Greek μνημονικός (mnēmonikos, "of memory"), from μνήμον ("remembering, mindful"), from μνᾶσθαι (mnasthai, "to remember"), from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”); see mind.

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Examples

  • The new mnemonic is C-A-B; we're now supposed to start chest compressions right after calling 911; adjusting the airway comes next, leaving the rescue breaths for last.

    First aid and CPR guidelines revisited Jennifer LaRue Huget 2010

  • Not only does he not mention the possibility of intervention in mnemonic and sensory structures; it's hard to reconcile such a possibility with his assertion that the linguistic structure that, he finds, disarticulates the Third

    Seeing Is Reading 2005

  • Is your "love of the new" [I won't repeat calling it the Purina Effect, although perhaps they'd be happy I find the name mnemonic for pet food] the sole reason you miss down-level breaks?

    MSDN Blogs 2009

  • Is your "love of the new" [I won't repeat calling it the Purina Effect, although perhaps they'd be happy I find the name mnemonic for pet food] the sole reason you miss down-level breaks?

    MSDN Blogs 2009

  • 71The intangible objective of the New Jerusalem did not diminish but rather elevated the value of material works, particularly those assisting in mnemonic composition.

    Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

  • “Let cockroaches dig mines” hmm the mnemonic is correct, but the preceding explanation isn’t.

    What Are Your Favourite Spelling Memory Aids? | Lifehacker Australia 2009

  • Then we find mnemonic aid, which is somewhat of a redundancy inasmuch as the word mnemonic alone is defined as "assisting, or aiding memory. '

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XI No 2 1984

  • A technique that LaBerge calls mnemonic induction of lucid dreams, or MILD, involves waking up an hour earlier than usual in the morning, recalling your last dream, and going asleep again while thinking, "The next time I'm dreaming, I want to remember I'm dreaming."

    Scientific American 2010

  • A mnemonic is a short rhyme, phrase, or other mental technique for making information easier to memorize.

    BabyGotMac.com 2009

  • Even so, I shall regularly speak in terms of the evil genius (following Descartes 'lead), as a kind of mnemonic for the more general doubt about our cognitive nature.

    Descartes' Epistemology Newman, Lex 2005

Comments

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  • Mnemonic devices can be very useful if the learning task requires memorization of discrete information or basic frameworks that lack other cognitive connections.

    Lapp, Diane. Content Area Reading and Learning : Instructional Strategies.

    Mahwah, NJ, USA: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Incorporated, 2004. p 287.

    http://site.ebrary.com/lib/bham/Doc?id=10106604&ppg=298

    Copyright © 2004. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Incorporated. All rights reserved.

    May 3, 2007

  • Mr. Venus eats more jam sandwiches under Newcastle Pier. It has become a matter of debate as to whether Newcastle has a pier.

    September 14, 2008

  • It used to have a pier. Probably climate change you know, rising galaxy levels, that sort of thing.

    September 14, 2008

  • There was a sometimes located out beyond the pier. Having not heard about it for some time now I'm assuming, because of something like that sort of thing, it's also now a 'used to' have.

    By the (milky) way, bilby, had you noticed the eats is getting warmer?

    September 14, 2008

  • Possibly because the west is using too many chillies.

    September 14, 2008

  • And no under jokes, please.

    September 14, 2008

  • Now I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after all night studying obnoxious quantum mechanics.

    September 14, 2008

  • Beware the undertoad!

    September 14, 2008

  • Some hokey spelling mnemonics I hadn't come across before in the comments on this article. e.g. rhythm = Rhythm has your two hips moving.

    June 21, 2009

  • You can sing the Greek Alphabet to the tune of "Momma's little baby loves shortnin' bread" Try it. It's fun.

    June 21, 2009

  • I Love this word - have never actually spoken it, however.

    June 21, 2009

  • Mousescout -- I love your idea, but I tried it and couldn't make the letters fit the music. Could you please post instructions?

    June 22, 2009

  • memory never ever makes out; now I can

    November 14, 2016

  • New mnemonics system explained here: https://www.futilitycloset.com/2018/07/19/piphilology/

    July 20, 2018