Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Relating to, assisting, or intended to assist the memory.
- n. A device, such as a formula or rhyme, used as an aid in remembering.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Pertaining to memory; especially, assisting or intended to assist the memory: as, mnemonic words; mnemonic lines.
- n. Same as mnemonics.
Wiktionary
- adj. Of or relating to mnemonics: the study of techniques for remembering anything more easily.
- n. Anything (especially something in verbal form) used to help remember something.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Assisting in memory; helping to remember.
- n. Something used to assist the memory, as an easily remembered acronym or verse.
- n. An abbreviated word that resembles the full word, used so as to be easily recognized.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a device (such as a rhyme or acronym) used to aid recall
- adj. of or relating to or involved the practice of aiding the memory
Etymologies
- 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. (Wiktionary)
- Greek mnēmonikos, from mnēmōn, mnēmon-, mindful; see men-1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
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.”
“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”
“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?”
“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
““Let cockroaches dig mines” hmm the mnemonic is correct, but the preceding explanation isn’t.”
What Are Your Favourite Spelling Memory Aids? | Lifehacker Australia
“Then we find mnemonic aid, which is somewhat of a redundancy inasmuch as the word mnemonic alone is defined as "assisting, or aiding memory. ”
“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.”
“A mnemonic is a short rhyme, phrase, or other mental technique for making information easier to memorize.”
“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.”
“By using simple methods such as mnemonic devices, we can remember the correlations more easily and thus keep our orientation in the mandala throughout the initiation.”
Taking the Kalachakra Initiation ��� 9 The Preparation Ceremony
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘mnemonic’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2053 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 503 more...
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Don't Forget
Forgetting words & remembrance words.
to bear in mind, disremember, mind, oubliette, recollect, forget, oblivion, lethe, amnesia, mnemonic, retain, recall and 1 more...
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Starts with a silent letter
...with grateful thanks to telofy (for "cnidarian"), and to the song "Crazy ABC's" by Barenaked Ladies.
cnidarian, mnemonic, chthonic, ptarmigan, psoriasis, psittacine, bdellium, aisle, czar, gnarly, gnat, gnaw and 82 more...
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-mnem-, -mnesia, -mnesis
memory
mnemonics, amnesia, anamnesis, hypermnesia, cryptomnesia, mnemonic, antimnemonic, anamnestic, mnestic, mneme, automnesia, pseudamnesia and 3 more...
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magoosh1
aberration, aboveboard, abysmal, ace, affable, aghast, alacrity, ambiguous, ambivalent, ameliorate, amenable, amiable and 222 more...
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Mnemonic Devices
I'm sure folks have made other lists like this... I just can't remember what they're called or where to find them. Pneumonic Devices? No... that's not it....
Roy G. Biv, all cows eat grass, good boys do fine..., every good boy do..., face, barbara, please excuse my ..., King Penguins con..., keep pond clean o..., all cars eat gas, never eat shredde..., my very educated ... and 68 more...
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Cinnamony Sea Anemones & Co.
Words full of m's and n's are a little-known cure for sadness.
aeschynomenous, monomoy, zamzummim, abdominous, abhominal, abonnement, acetaminophen, acetophenone, adenomyoma, aeronomer, agnominal, albuminimeter and 229 more...
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inquiryqueue's list
words delicious to pronounce
apostrophe, asphodel, anemone, cantaloupe, cantalevered, cardamom, coriander, petrichor, sycamore, luminous, tendril, peculiar and 122 more...
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Reckon's Word List
Turned On
tintinnabulation, talisman, soliloquy, serendipity, quintessential, rhapsody, plethora, myrrh, palimpsest, panoply, mellifluous, loquacious and 102 more...
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word tank
a couple words
logolepsy, nefarious, quintessential, tintinnabulation, serendipity, rhapsody, palimpsest, panoply, mellifluous, imbue, loquacious, garrulous and 174 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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Consider the Lobster
By David Foster Wallace
percussive, discursive, lugubrious, docent, assiduously, berm, wag, bonmot, imbroglio, telegraph, fissile, rube and 220 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, M
metamerism, malady, margin, marauder, maverick, mercury, mirth, mandible, macerate, meteor, manumission, mica and 292 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for mnemonic.
pterodactyl Mousescout -- I love your idea, but I tried it and couldn't make the letters fit the music. Could you please post instructions? Jun 21, 2009
nahiku888 I Love this word - have never actually spoken it, however. Jun 21, 2009
mousescout You can sing the Greek Alphabet to the tune of "Momma's little baby loves shortnin' bread" Try it. It's fun. Jun 21, 2009
bilby 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. Jun 21, 2009
oroboros Beware the undertoad! Sep 14, 2008
asativum Now I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after all night studying obnoxious quantum mechanics. Sep 14, 2008
gangerh And no under jokes, please. Sep 14, 2008
gangerh Possibly because the west is using too many chillies. Sep 14, 2008
gangerh 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? Sep 14, 2008
bilby It used to have a pier. Probably climate change you know, rising galaxy levels, that sort of thing. Sep 14, 2008
gangerh Mr. Venus eats more jam sandwiches under Newcastle Pier. It has become a matter of debate as to whether Newcastle has a pier. Sep 14, 2008
corinne 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