ABC

en-noun

ABC (countable and uncountable, plural ABCs)

I run my hands over his chest, assessing his ABCs: airway, breathing, circulation.

2015, Marcia Wells, Eddie Red Undercover: Mystery in Mayan Mexico, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 180:

(mnemonic, emergency medicine) Initialism of airway, breathing and circulation, the essential steps in the immediate assessment and treatment of critically ill or injured patients.


FOIL

Acronym of first outer inner last or similar.

(mnemonic) An acronym for the algorithm for multiplying two binomials.


CHONPS

(mnemonic) Initialism of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur: the main elements that occur naturally in carbon-based living systems on Earth.


FURPS

software engineering
software engineering

(software engineering, mnemonic) Acronym of functionality, usability, reliability, performance, supportability; used to help remember the major requirements of software.


SMART

Over time, I noticed various exercises I did with Woebot rubbing off in my daily life. Woebot taught me how to set SMART goals — specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-limited.

2022 September 27, Barclay Bram, “My Therapist, the Robot”, in The New York Times:

(mnemonic) An acronym for remembering desirable characteristics for goal-setting: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timebound. (See SMART criteria on Wikipedia.Wikipedia)


METT-TC

(US, military, mnemonic) Initialism of mission, enemy, terrain, troops available, time, and civilian considerations. Used by the United States military to help commanders remember the considerations in the planning of any operation.


rise over run

(mnemonic) Used for remembering that the slope of a non-vertical line is the ratio of the amount it rises over some interval, over the length of that interval.


SUNWAC

(mnemonic) Acronym used to remember the western tributary rivers of the Yorkshire Dales: Swale, Ure, Nidd, Wharfe, Aire, Calder


PEMDAS

order of operations
order of operations#English

(mnemonic) An acronym used by mathematics students to remember the order of operations: parentheses, then exponents, then multiplication and division, then addition and subtraction.


PEMDAS

Initialism of plus + exponent + multiplikation + division + addition + subtraktion.

init

(mnemonic) BEDMAS, BODMAS, BOMDAS, PEDMAS, PEMDAS


never eat shredded wheat

never eat soggy wheat (alternative)
never eat soggy waffles (alternative)
never eat soggy Weet-Bix (alternative Australia)

From the initials of north, east, south and west.

Which sentence might help you remember that the points of the compass, listed clockwise, are north, east, south, and west? […] Never eat shredded wheat.

1990, McDougal, Littell English: Test Booklet, McDougal, Littell, →ISBN, page 92:

The directions are easy . . . North, east, south, west. ‘Never eat shredded wheat.’ That’s how I remember them. Just start at the top of the map and think ‘Never eat shredded wheat.’ The first letter in each word begins with the same letters as the directions.

2006, Peter D. Eckel, Toward Higher Ground: Reclaiming Public Confidence in a Competitive Environment, American Council on Education, page 291:

So we tried to work on that, how to remember that, and you know with your right hand and your left hand and never eat shredded wheat and all those little memory tricks.

2006, Mark Dennis Vagle, When Students Do Not Understand: Recognition and Response in the Action Present of Teaching, University of Minnesota, page 127:

If Lachemi was hiding somewhere it’d be in Ryerson’s equivalent of a sneaky labyrinth: Kerr Hall. You look around with a strong sense of direction. Maybe he’s perched on the shiny basketball court in the Kerr Hall gym. Or doing lab experiments in Kerr Hall south. O-or m-maybe he’s in a classroom in the basement of Kerr Hall E-e-east? West? Every hall starts to look the same. You desperately mutter, “Never eat shredded wheat,” whipping your head around. You check the compass on your phone and it’s going haywire.

2020 April 1, Andrea Josic, Nathaniel Crouch, Zachary Roman, “Help deliver a secret message to Rye’s president”, in The Eyeopener, volume 53, number 21, page 7:

Despite the compass part of the body art having been beautifully drawn, the large inking had quite a big mistake. / Never eat shredded wheat, right? One of the easy ways to remember the four directions… / Well it seems like someone may have missed that class in school as the tattoo artist mixed up the letters.

2022 June 14, Layla Nicholson, “People left in fits of giggles at 'idiotic' mistake on tattoo of compass”, in Daily Star, archived from the original on 2022-06-14:

I have no sense of direction… I mean literally none! If someone tells me it’s north I still have to do “never eat shredded wheat” in my head to work out where to point, and even then I’m still generally going the wrong way.

2023 May 24, Natalie Lewis, quotee, “My London: Natalie Lewis – PR Expert & Author”, in LDNFASHION, archived from the original on 2023-05-24:

(mnemonic) Used to learn the cardinal points.


BOMDAS

(mathematics, mnemonic) An acronym for arithmetic order of operations, with B first and AS last: Brackets, then order or 'of' in some curricula, then multiplication and division, then addition and subtraction.


BODMAS

order of precedence
order of precedence#English

(mathematics, mnemonic) An acronym for the arithmetic order of precedence, with the highest precedence first: Brackets, order, division, multiplication, addition, subtraction.


BEDMAS

(mathematics, mnemonic) An acronym for arithmetic order of precedence, with B first and AS last: Brackets, exponents, division, multiplication, addition, subtraction.


Roy G. Biv

/ɹɔɪ d͡ʒiː bɪv/

visible spectrum
visible spectrum#English

(mnemonic) An acronym used to remember the color sequence of the visible spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.

káždyj oxótnik želájet znátʹ, gde sidít fazán

ка́ждый охо́тник жела́ет зна́ть, где сиди́т фаза́н


every good boy deserves fudge

every good boy deserves favor (alternative)
every good boy deserves favour (alternative)
every good boy deserves food (alternative)
every good boy deserves fun (alternative)
every good boy does fine (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-every good boy deserves fudge.wav

(music, mnemonic) A mnemonic phrase to help remember the order of the five lines on a musical treble stave in order from the bottom to the top: E G B D F.


Richard of York gave battle in vain

(mnemonic) A mnemonic phrase to help remember the order of the seven colours of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.


head

my very educated mother just served us nine pumpkins

From the initial letters of the names of the eight planets, plus Pluto, formerly considered a planet.

(astronomy, slightly dated, mnemonic) Used to remember the order and names of the (then) nine planets of the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.

mein Vater erklärt mir jeden Sonntag unsere neun Planeten

my very educated mother just served us nine pizzas

my very educated mother just served us nachos

my very educated mother just served us noodles


68-95-99.7 rule

(statistics mnemonic) The rule stating that a normal distribution will have 68% of its observations within one standard deviation of the mean, 95% within two, and 99.7% within three.


TULIP

unconditional election
unconditional election#English

limited atonement
limited atonement#English

irresistible grace
irresistible grace#English

perseverance of the saints
perseverance of the saints#English

(religion, mnemonic) Acronym for the Five Points of Calvinist doctrine: total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints


SLUDGE

(emergency medicine, mnemonic) An acronym used to help remember the common symptoms of certain affections of a cholinergic toxidrome: salivation, lacrimation, urination, defecation, gastrointestinal upset, emesis.


DUMBELS

(emergency medicine, mnemonic) An acronym used to remember the common symptoms of certain affections of a cholinergic toxidrome: ("diaphoresis/diarrhea, urination, miosis, bronchospasm/bradycardia/bronchorrhea, emesis, lacrimation, salivation").


SOHCAHTOA

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-SOHCAHTOA.wav

(mnemonic, trigonometry) sine: opposite over hypotenuse, cosine: adjacent over hypotenuse, tangent: opposite over adjacent


ROYGBIV

(mnemonic) Alternative form of Roy G. Biv (“acronym for rainbow colors in order”).


FANBOYS

Acronym of For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So

The risk is greater with subordinating conjunctions (see “Starting a Sentence with Because”), but the FANBOYS are sometimes considered guilty by association: […]

2008 July 8, Mignon Fogarty, Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, New York: Macmillan, →ISBN, →OL, page 80:

These FANBOYS help create compound sentences, and when they serve this role, a comma comes before their use.

2009 September 24, Mel Friedman, Rena Grasso, Carol Hunter, Laura Meiselman, The Best Test Preparation for the PRAXIS II ParaPro Assessment 0755 and 1755, Piscataway: Research & Education Association, →ISBN, →OL, page 161:

Avoid putting a comma immediately after any of the FANBOYS.

2011 November 24, Larry Beason, Mark Lester, A Commonsense Guide to Grammar and Usage, 6th edition, Macmillan, →ISBN, →OL, page 192:

(mnemonic) Acronym used to remember the coordinating conjunctions for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so.


spring forward, fall back

/ˌspɹɪŋ ˈfɔːwəd ˌfɔːl ˈbæk/

/ˌspɹɪŋ ˈfɔɹwəɹd ˌfɔl ˈbæk/

A pun on spring (“(noun) season of the year in temperate regions in which plants spring from the ground and into bloom and dormant animals spring to life; (verb) to move or burst forth”) and fall (“(noun) season of the year in temperate regions when the leaves typically fall from the trees; (verb) to move to a lower position under the effect of gravity”).

[I]f we have to standardize on one time period, it would seem eminently logical to settle on daylight time for the convenience of the greatest number of people. Besides, under such a system, we would once and for all abolish the trivial "Spring forward, fall back."

1971 October 28, Craig Hosmer, “Fiddling around with ‘God’s Time’”, in Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 92d Congress, First Session (United States House of Representatives), volume 117, part 29, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 38086, column 3:

I think it is important to remember the great push for year-round daylight saving time came as a result of the energy crisis of 1973. It was alleged this action would result in home heating, gasoline, and electricity savings and as a result the Congress got into the spring-forward, fall-back business of daylight saving time. Today, some 3 years later, we find no evidence of energy savings in the home, no effect on gasoline consumption, and that savings on electricity are not conclusive.

1976 June 9, Keith G[eorge] Sebelius, “Statement of Hon. Keith G. Sebelius, a Representative in Congress from the State of Kansas”, in Daylight Savings Time Act of 1976: Hearings before the Subcommittee on Transportation and Commerce of the [Committee] on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives, Ninety-fourth Congress, Second Session on H.R. 13089, H.R. 13090 (and All Similar Bills), Bills to Amend the Uniform Time Act of 1966 to Change the Period of Observance of Daylight Savings Time: And S. 2931, a Bill to Provide for Daylight Saving Time on a Seven-month Basis, and to Require the Federal Communications Commission to Permit Certain Daytime Broadcast Stations to Operate before Local Sunrise […] (Serial No. 94-109), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 80:

The first Federal legislation on the matter was enacted during World War I with the passage of the Standard Time Act on March 19, 1918. […] To conserve fuel and aid the war effort, the act also provided that the standard time of each zone would be advanced one hour for seven months of the year, beginning in early spring and ending in the fall. Thus developed the slogan still used today: "Spring forward; fall back."

1981 April, Philip R. Smith, “Daylight Saving? Well, It’s about … Time”, in Denise M. Gower, editor, DFSC Chronicle, Alexandria, Va.: Defense Fuel Supply Center, Defense Supply Agency, United States Department of Defense, →OCLC, page 27:

Twice a year, in April and October, most people change their clocks by one hour. Almost everyone forgets if the time needs to move forward or move backward. If you use the simple mnemonic, "Spring forward, fall back," you won't have to find out the hard way that you forgot to change your clock. This timely mnemonic links the season with the action of the same time: In the spring, the time springs forward by an hour. In the fall, time falls back by an hour.

2002, John B. Arden, “Tricking Yourself into Remembering”, in Improving Your Memory for Dummies (For Dummies), Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley Publishing, →ISBN, part III (Preserving Your Memory):

I asked to speak to my mother again, and said, ‘Is it tonight we have to change the clocks?’ / She said that it was. / I asked if it was forwards or backwards; I can never remember which. / She said, ‘It’s easy: spring forward, fall back.’ / I said, ‘But do the clocks go backwards or forwards?’ / She said again, ‘Spring forward, fall back.’

2004, Sue Townsend, “Saturday March 29th [2003]”, in Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction, London: Michael Joseph, →ISBN, page 324:

Many areas of the world observe Daylight saving time. On a specified day in spring of each year, many people set their clocks forward by one hour. Then in the fall they set them back, leading to the clever saying, “spring forward, fall back.”

2011, Darrell Young, “Setup Menu”, in Mastering the Nikon D7000, Santa Barbara, Calif.: Rocky Nook; NikoniansPress, →ISBN, page 244:

This practice of taking the clock time forward during spring and backward during fall is known as daylight saving (DST). It is also implied by the popular notion Spring Forward, Fall Back, referring to the advancement of the clock during spring and the going back in time in fall. […] Since 2007, in the USA, the DST starts on the 2nd Sunday of March. On that day, the clocks are moved one hour forward at 2 a.m. local standard time. This means that 2 a.m., the clocks are manipulated to read 3 a.m. local daylight time. Again, DST ends on the 1st Sunday of November, when clocks are moved backward by one hour at 2 a.m. local daylight time. So, at 2 a.m., the clocks are changed to read 1 a.m. local standard time.

2023, Eklas Hossain, “Energy without the Sun”, in The Sun, Energy, and Climate Change, Cham, Zug, Switzerland: Springer Nature, →DOI, →ISBN, page 215:

daylight saving time
daylight saving time#English

(US, mnemonic) Used to recall how clocks, watches, and other chronometers are adjusted for daylight saving time: local time goes forward in the spring (usually by one hour), and back in fall (autumn).

kelloja siirretään kesää kohti

used to recall how clocks, etc., are adjusted for daylight saving time


please excuse my dear Aunt Sally

(mathematics) A mnemonic used to help people remember the order of operations, in the PEMDAS order.


change sides, change signs

(algebra, mnemonic) An acronym to help remember that when a value is moved to the opposite side of the equals sign, then the operator is changed also.


BOLTS

(mnemonic) Acronym used to remember the essential features of a map: Border, orientation (north arrow), legend, title, scale.


my very educated mother just served us nachos

my very educated mother just served us noodles#English

(astronomy mnemonic) Alternative form of my very educated mother just served us noodles.


my very educated mother just served us noodles

From the initial letters of the 8 planets' names.

(astronomy mnemonic) Used to remember the order and names of the eight planets of the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.

mes vieilles tantes mangeaient jadis sur une nappe percée

mein Vater erklärt mir jeden Sonntag unseren Nachthimmel


RED DANES

(mnemonic) Acronym used to remember the symptoms associated with the drug PCP: rage, erythema, dilated pupils, delusions, amnesia, nystagmus, excitation, and skin dryness


all students take calculus

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-all students take calculus.wav

(mathematics, mnemonic) An acronym used to remember the sign values of all the trigonometric functions in the two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system: all, sine, tangent, cosine — signifying which of the functions are positive, in the order of the quadrants, starting at the top right and moving counterclockwise.


Dr. & Mrs. Vandertramp

(mnemonic) Acronym used to remember the common non-reflexive French verbs that take être in the perfect tense.


OSASCOMP

(linguistics, mnemonic) Order of adjectives: opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose


PEDMAS

please excuse my dear Aunt Sally#English

(mathematics, mnemonic) An acronym used to help people remember the order of operations, in the PEDMAS order (cf. "please excuse my dear Aunt Sally").


CATCH 22 syndrome

en-noun

CATCH 22 syndrome (countable and uncountable, plural CATCH 22 syndromes)

The salient features of DiGeorge syndrome can be summarized by the mnemonic CATCH 22 (an allusion to Catch-22, a 1961 novel by Joseph Heller):
* Cardiac defects,
* Abnormal facies,
* Thymic aplasia,
* Cleft palate,
* Hypocalcemia/hypoparathyroidism, and
* 22q11.2 deletion.

DiGeorge syndrome
DiGeorge syndrome#English

(pathology, informal) Synonym of DiGeorge syndrome.


head

Father Charles goes down and ends battle

(music, mnemonic) A mnemonic for the order of sharps: F C G D A E B.


TOA-CAH-SOH

Inversion of SOH-CAH-TOA, nearly homophonic with Hokkien 大跤嫂 (tōa-kha-só, literally “middle-aged woman with huge feet”).

der

(Singapore, mnemonic, trigonometry, humorous) Synonym of SOHCAHTOA.


Mrs Gren

(biology, mnemonic) The necessary features of living organisms: movement, respiration, sensitivity, growth, reproduction, excretion and nutrition


TRBL

(computing, Internet, Cascading Style Sheets, mnemonic) Acronym of top, right, bottom, left, the order in which the sides of elements are defined.


VIBGYOR

(mnemonic) An acronym used to remember the color sequence of the visible spectrum: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red


I before E, except after C

Formed because of the rhyme between the names of the letters E and C, /iː/ and /siː/. The "rule" was invented in the 19th century.

i before e, except after c (alternative)

(orthography, mnemonic) In English words that contain the letters I and E together, the I tends to come before the E (ie), except in cases when the two are preceded by the letter C, in which case the E comes before the I (cei).


SMARTER

(mnemonic) An acronym for remembering desirable criteria for goal-setting: Specific, Measurable, Acceptable, Realistic, Time Frame, Extending, Rewarding


head

my very educated mother just served us nine pizzas

my very educated mother just served us nine pumpkins#English

(dated astronomy mnemonic) Synonym of my very educated mother just served us nine pumpkins.


never eat soggy wheat

never eat shredded wheat
never eat shredded wheat#English

(mnemonic) Alternative form of never eat shredded wheat.


FACE

(music, mnemonic) A mnemonic phrase to help remember the order of the four spaces of a musical treble clef in order from the bottom to the top.


my very excellent mother just served us nine pizzas

(astronomy, slightly dated, mnemonic) Used to remember the order and names of the (then) nine planets of the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.


BAGS

Acronym of beauty, age, goodness, size (“those categories of adjective that occur before the noun in French”).


spring ahead, fall behind

spring forward, fall back
spring forward, fall back#English

(US, mnemonic) Synonym of spring forward, fall back.


From each word's initial letter forming SOHCAHTOA.

Another high school teacher told me that he uses a similar acrostic, but his is as follows: Some Old Hippie Caught Another Hippie Tripping On Acid.

2003 March 5, “Mnemonic Devices” (chapter 9), in Marcia L. Tate, editor, Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites, SAGE Publications, →ISBN, archived from the original on 2024-03-20, page 93:

"It's easier with a mnemonic," Molly says. "Like… Some Old Hippie Caught Another Hippie Tripping On Acid—"

2015 December 1, Eric Lindstrom, chapter 23, in Not If I See You First, Little, Brown Books For Young Readers, →ISBN, archived from the original on 2024-03-19:

[…] I thought my mastery of sines, cosines, and tangents—Some Old Hippie Caught Another Hippie Tripping On Acid—might elevate me to another level of intellectual superiority in my high school; […]

2022 September, Jill Christman, “The Googly Eye”, in If This Were Fiction, archived from the original on 2024-03-20, page 92:

trigonometric function
trigonometric function#English

(trigonometry, humorous) A mnemonic used to help people remember the different trigonometric functions: sine is opposite over hypotenuse; cosine is adjacent over hypotenuse; and tangent is opposite over adjacent.


have no fear of ice cold beer

(mnemonic) Used to remember the diatomic stable elements of the periodic table: hydrogen, nitrogen, fluorine, oxygen, iodine, chlorine, bromine


DOCTOR

SER is used to classify or identify attributes like, description, occupation, characteristic, time, origin or relationship. The acronym D-O-C-T-O-R could be helpful to remember it.

2016 May, Edwin Alverio, ¡Manos a la Obra!, page 60:

You can use the acronyms DOCTOR and PLACE to help you remember ser vs. estar, particularly for more specific cases when you’re not sure which verb to use.

2021 November 18, Lydia Schapiro, “Ser and Estar: Mastering Spanish Conjugations”, in My Private Professor:

Let's look at DOCTOR and ser first. To recap, ser is used when discussing permanent states – about what something is – and this acronym is a useful trick to remind us what those permanent states are.

2023 November 21, Nadiia Mykhalevych, “Ser vs. estar: Understanding Spanish “to be” verbs”, in Preply Blog:

A mnemonic to help remember the difference between the Spanish verbs ser and estar (both meaning "to be"); ser is generally used for: Descriptions, Occupations, Characteristics, Times, Origins, and Relationships.


righty tighty, lefty loosey

lefty loosey, righty tighty (alternative)

This will help you remember which way to turn a screw, bolt or nut: "Righty tighty, lefty loosey."

1984 October, Scott Stuckey, “Hobby Hows”, in Boys' Life, volume 74, number 10, page 11:

"Lefty loosey," Jessie muttered, and tried turning the key counter-clockwise.

People sometimes become confused as to why a spoke is tightened by turning the spoke nipple counterclockwise. "Isn’t it always righty-tighty and lefty-loosey?"

1999, Vic Armijo, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cycling, page 293:

(mnemonic) Used to recall the direction a standard screw, bolt, or nut must be turned to either be tightened or loosened, or the direction a key must be turned to either lock or unlock something, right meaning clockwise and left meaning counterclockwise.

la dreta oprimeix, l'esquerra allibera

mnemonic for tightening and loosening screws


PUMDAS

Initialism of plus + upphöjt (“raised, exponent”) + multiplikation + division + addition + subtraktion.

init

(mnemonic) BEDMAS, BODMAS, BOMDAS, PEDMAS, PEMDAS


all cows eat grass

(music) A mnemonic for the notes found on the spaces of the bass clef staff: A, C, E, G.


good boys deserve fudge always

(music) A mnemonic for the notes found on the lines of the bass clef staff: G, B, D, F, A.