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mnemonic

UK/nɪˈmɒnɪk/US/nəˈmɑnɪk/
nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,776 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: mnemonics

A mnemonic is a trick or rhyme that helps you remember. A useful mnemonic, learn the mnemonic, a mnemonic device.

The first m is silent. It works by attaching dry information to something the memory holds well — a rhyme, an image or a story — which is why the ones about the number of days in each month and the colours of the rainbow have lasted for generations.

Tijmen Stam / IIVQ · CC BY-SA 3.0

Definitions of mnemonic

  1. 1nounmnemonicA trick or rhyme that helps you remember.C1

    “The mnemonic 'Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain' helps children remember the colours of the rainbow.”

mnemonic is a memory aid.

Where it comes from

Greek mnemonikos means of memory, from mnemon, mindful, and ultimately from the name of Mnemosyne, memory herself.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *men- — to mind; to think

  2. Ancient Greek

    μνημονῐκός — pertaining to memory or remembrance, memorial

  3. Latin

    mnemonicus

  4. English, today

    mnemonic

Built from

  • μνήμων · Ancient Greek — mindful, remembering
  • μνάομαι · Ancient Greek — to be mindful, remember

Borrowed from Latin mnemonicus or its etymon Ancient Greek μνημονῐκός (“pertaining to memory or remembrance, memorial”) + -ic. Mνημονῐκός is derived from μνήμων (“mindful, remembering”) + -ῐκός; while μνήμων is from μνάομαι (“to be mindful, remember”) (from Proto-Indo-European men- (“to mind; to think”)) + -μων. 2

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Thinking & Memory

Practise this word

mnemonic in the wild

  • The mnemonic major system is a mnemonic technique used to help in memorizing numbers.

    Mnemonic major system

  • The Dominic system is a mnemonic system used to remember sequences of digits similar to the mnemonic major system.

    Dominic system

  • SAMPLE history is a mnemonic acronym to remember key questions for a person's medical assessment.

    SAMPLE history

  • The method of loci is a mnemonic technique that uses visual imagination and spatial memory to organize and recall information.

    Method of loci

  • Similar mnemonic devices are used by contemporary savants such as Daniel Tammet, to recite up to 22,514 digits of pi from memory.

    Art of memory

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.