stich-, sticho- +

1. A number of lines of writing, especially a poem or word puzzle, in which particular letters, e.g., the first in each line, spell a word or phrase: An acrostic is a short composition in which the initial letters of the lines, taken in order, spell a word, phrase, or sentence. Sometimes the last or middle letters of the lines, or all of them, are similarly arranged to spell words, etc., whence a distinction of single, double, or triple acrostics.

A verse or arrangement of words in which certain letters in each line, such as the first or last when taken in order, spell out a word, motto, etc.
2. A Hebrew poem in which the consecutive lines or verses begin with the successive letters of the alphabet; The twelve of the Psalms are considered to be acrostic. The Psalm cxix. is thought to be the best example.

Descriptive of certain bristles situated in the highest rank or row of particular flies: Mr. Thompson, the biology teacher, referred to specific hairs on the mesonotum of muscoid flies as being acrostichal.

In botany, regarding the family Polypodiaceae of the genus of Acrostichum: All of the tropical acrostichoid ferns have the sporangia coating all on the underside of the fronds.

1. Two lines of poetry, sometimes rhyming, that form a complete unit in themselves.
2. A unit of verse consisting of two lines; especially, as used in Greek and Latin elegiac poetry.
3. A rhyming couplet.

A congenital, abnormal, additional row of eyelashes.

1. A reference to leaves that grow in vertical rows on opposite sides of a stem.
2. Divided into two parts or two rows.

1. A half line of verse, especially when separated rhythmically from the rest of the line by a caesura (break or pause).
2. An incomplete, or imperfect, line of poetic verse.

Referring to, or written in, hemistichs; also, by, or according to, hemistichs; as, a hemistichal division of a verse.

1. A composition consisting of seven lines or verses.
2. A seven-line stanza or poem.

A stanza, or poem consisting of six lines.

1. A poem, or an epigram, consisting of a single metrical line.
2. A single metrical line of poetry.

In eight vertical ranks; such as, leaves on a stem.

A poem of eight lines.

A longitudinal rank, or row, of leaves along a stem.

Having thick lines or rows.