List of mnemonics

This article contains a list of notable mnemonics used to remember various objects, lists, etc.

Astronomy

Order of planets from the Sun:

Since the IAU change the definition of a planet and relegated Pluto to the status of minor planet, the following has gained popularity

Stellar classification sequence: O B A F G K M R N S
Revised stellar classification sequence: O B A F G K M L T Y
Signs of the zodiac:
Average distances of the outer planets from the Sun in astronomical units, in round numbers:

Biology

To remember the order of taxa in biology :
*"Dear King Philip Came Over For Good Soup" is often cited as a non-vulgar method for teaching students to memorize the taxonomic classification of system. Other variations tend to start with the mythical king, with one author noting "The nonsense about King Philip, or some ribald version of it, has been memorized by generations of biology students".
*Dear King Philip Claps Often For Good Science
*Dark King Prawns Curl Over Fresh Green Salad
*Do Kings Play Chess On Fine Green Silk?
*Dumb Kids Prefer Cheese Over Fried Greasy Spinach
*Do Kindly Place Cover On Fresh Green Spring Vegetables
*Darn Kernel Panics Crash Our Family Game System
*Do Keep Pond Clean Or Frog Gets Sick
*Dumb Kids Play Catch Over Father's Grave Stone
*Daniel Keeps Philip Cat On Friday Getting Salsa
*Dumb Kids Pushing Cups Over Feeds Growing Spite
To remember the processes that define living things:
* MRS GREN: Movement; Respiration; Sensation; Growth; Reproduction; Excretion; Nutrition
To remember the number of humps on types of camels:
* D in Dromedary has one hump; B in Bactrian has two
To recognize poison ivy
*Leaves of three, leave it be.
*Hairy vine, no friend of mine.
COWS stand for Cold Opposite Warm Same, which are the relation between the components of the Caloric reflex test
To memorise DNA/nucleotide base pairs
*Tigers Are Great Cats, first letters of the word pairs stand for base pairs.
To memorise the types of antibodies
*GAMED: IgG, IgA, IgM, IgE, Ig'''D'''

Chemistry

To recall the names of the first 20 elements in the periodic table:
To remember the electrodes on which oxidation and reduction occurs

An Ox '''
Red Cat

To remember the different charges of the anode and cathode in electrolysis :
AN OIL RIG CAT:
CHON: to remember the four most common elements in organisms
CHNOPS: to remember the six most common elements in organisms

Engineering

For the EIA electronic color code, Bl'ack, Brown, R'ed, Orange, Yellow, Green, Bl'ue, V'iolet, Gray, White, Gold, Silver, None
A mnemonic to remember which way to turn common screws and nuts, including light bulbs, is "Righty-tighty, Lefty-loosey"; another is "Right on, Left off".
For the OSI Network Layer model Please Do Not Throw Sausage Pizza Away correspond to the Physical, Datalink, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation and Application layers.
For power in watts: Twinkle twinkle little star, Power equals I squared R.
"ELI the ICE man": E leads the I in an inductor, I leads the E in a capacitor. Useful in power factor correction.

Geography

Both names of the northern major circles of latitude have six letters; both southern ones have nine.
The countries of South America in order of largest to smallest by area: Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile, Paraguay, Ecuador, Guyana, Uruguay, Suriname
The countries of Central America from North to South: Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama
The Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea including the eight independent nations and eight larger island territories, in order generally from northwest to southeast:
The Great Lakes in order of largest to smallest: Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, Ontario
And in order from west to east:
A more common mnemonic for the Great Lakes, disregarding order:
The principal factors affecting climate: LABDOWA
The countries bordering Germany : Denmark, Poland, Czechia, Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands.
* Do Polish Checks Always Say "France Look Back Now"!
The traditional six counties of Northern Ireland are Fermanagh, Antrim, Tyrone, Londonderry, Armagh, and Down. FAT LAD.
The northernmost countries of the African continent, from west to east: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt.
* Most African Tourists Like Elephants.
The southernmost provinces of Canada: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland.

Geology

Geological periods: Precambrian, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous; Post-Cretaceous Epochs: Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Recent
Mohs scale of mineral hardness 1-10:
Differentiating stalactites from stalagmites.
*The 'mites go up and the 'tites come down. When one has ants in one's pants, the mites go up and the tights come down.
*Stalactites hang tight, hang down like tights on a line; stalagmites 'might bite, might reach the roof.
*Tights hang from the C'eiling, and Mites crawl around on the Ground
*You need might to do push-ups. You must hold tight doing chin-ups.
*Stalactites are on the ceiling. Stalagmites are on the ground.
*Stalactites cling tight to the ceiling; stalagmites 'might' reach the ceiling.

History

Chinese dynasties (simplified): Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Jin, Southern and Northern, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing
English dynasties : Norman, Plantagenet, Lancaster, York, Tudor, Stuart, Hanover, Windsor
Wives of Henry VIII : Aragon, Boleyn, Seymour, Cleves, Howard, Parr
Wives of Henry VIII : Divorced, beheaded, died / Divorced, beheaded, survived.
British nobility rank order : Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount, Barons
Assassinated US presidents and perpetrators: Lincoln by Booth, Garfield by Guiteau, McKinley by Czolgosz and Kennedy by Oswald.

Languages

English

Characteristic sequence of letters

I always comes before E

In most words like friend, field, piece, pierce, mischief, thief, tier, it is "i" which comes before "e". But on some words with c just before the pair of e and i, like receive, perceive, "e" comes before "i". This can be remembered by the following mnemonic,
But this is not always obeyed as in case of weird and weigh, weight, height, neighbor etc. and can be remembered by extending that mnemonic as given below
Another variant, which avoids confusion when the two letters represent different sounds instead of a single sound, as in atheist or being, runs

Where ever there is a Q there is a U too

Most frequently u follows q. e.g.: Que, queen, question, quack, quark, quartz, quarry, quit, Pique, torque, macaque, exchequer. Hence the mnemonic:

Letters of specific syllables in a word

BELIEVE
SECRETARY
TEACHER
MEASUREMENT
FRIEND
SPECIAL
BEAUTIFUL
SEPARATE
TOMORROW
PRINCIPAL
BEGINNING

Distinguishing between similar words

Difference between Advice & Advise, Practice & Practise, Licence & License etc.

Advice, Practice, Licence etc. are nouns and Advise, Practise, License etc. are verbs.

Here or Hear
Complement and Compliment
Principle and Principal
Remedial and Menial
Their, There and They're
Stationary and stationery
Gray and grey

First letter mnemonics of spelling

DIARRHEA
ARITHMETIC
NECESSARY
BECAUSE
MNEMONICS
GEOGRAPHY
TOMORROW
RHYTHM

Grammar

Adjective order in English: OSASCOMP
*On Saturday And Sunday Cold Ovens Make Pastry
Commonly-used coordinating conjunctions in English: FANBOYS
*For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So

French

The verbs in French that use the auxiliary verb être in the compound past can be memorized using the phrase "Dr. Mrs. Vandertramp":

Spanish

The informal affirmative imperative forms can be memorized using the phrase "Vin Diesel has ten weapons, eh?": ¡Ven!, ¡Di!, ¡Sal!, ¡Haz!, ¡Ten!, ¡Ve!, ¡Pon!, ¡Se!
Contexts in which subjunctive mood is used can be memorized using the acronym WEIRDO: Wishes, Emotions, Impersonal expressions, Recommendations/requests, Doubt/denial, Ojalá

Mathematics

Pi

The first 15 digits of Pi can be remembered by counting the letters in the phrase, "How I want a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics."

Quadratic equation

The articulation of the quadratic equation can be sung to the tune of various songs as a mnemonic device.

Mathematical operations

For helping students in remembering the rules in adding and multiplying two signed numbers, Balbuena and Buayan made the letter strategies LAUS and LPUN, respectively.

Order of Operations

PEMDAS

Please - Parenthesis

Excuse - Exponents

My - Multiplication

Dear - Division

Aunt - Addition

Sally - Subtraction

In the UK, the phrase BIDMAS is used instead; Brackets, Indices, Division, Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction.
BEDMAS is more commonly used in Canada and New Zealand.

Trigonometry

The mnemonic "SOHCAHTOA" is often used to remember the basic trigonometric functions:Sine = Opposite / HypotenuseCosine = Adjacent / HypotenuseTangent = Opposite / Adjacent
Other mnemonics that have been used for this include:
Some Old Hippie
Caught Another Hippie
Tripping On Acid.
Ships Of Holland Call At Harwich To Obtain Apples.
Sighs Of Happiness Come After Having Tankards Of Ale.
Some Old Hen Caught Another Hen Taking Off Alone.
Silly Old Hitler Can't Advance His Troops On Africa.

Topology

Mnemonics for Euler's characteristic are "fa'v.me'", for "F add V, minus E, and "veryfun".

Calculus

The mnemonic "LIATE" is commonly used to determine which functions are to be chosen as and in integration by parts.Logarithmic functionsInverse trigonometric functionsAlgebraic functionsTrigonometric functionsExponential functions

Medicine

To remember the signs of a stroke:
* FAST
** Face
** Arms
** Speech
** Time
To remember the steps for Resuscitation:
* D.R.S. A.B.C.D
** Danger
** Response
** Send for help
** Airway
** Breaths
** CPR
** Defib

Anatomy

To remember the 10 organ systems of the human body:
* NICER DRUMS
Intrinsic muscles of hand

'A OF A OF A'
Thenar :
Abductor pollicis brevis
Opponens pollicis
Flexor pollicis brevis
Adductor pollicis
Hypothenar :
Opponens digiti minimi
Flexor digiti minimi
Abductor digiti minimi

Muscles of mandibular nerve :

Mylohyoid, Tensor tympani + Tensor veli palatini, Digastric (Anterior) – 4 Muscles of Mastication (temporalis, masseter, medial and lateral pterygoids

Bones of the wrist:

Scaphoid bone, Lunate bone, Triquetral bone, Pisiform bone, Trapezium (bone), Trapezoid bone, Capitate bone & Hamate bone

Differential Diagnosis
Cranial nerves

Music

Bowed strings

Mnemonics are used in remembering string names in violin standard tuning.
* Good Dogs Always Eat
* Greedy Dogs Always Eat
Mnemonics are used in remembering string names in viola standard tuning.
* Cats Give Dogs Advice

Guitar

Mnemonics are used in remembering guitar string names in standard tuning.

Thus we get the names of the strings from 6th string to the 1st string in that order.
Conversely, a mnemonic listing the strings in the reverse order is:

Ukulele

As for guitar tuning, there is also a mnemonic for ukuleles.

Reading music

Musicians can remember the notes associated with the five lines of the treble clef using any of the following mnemonics, EGBDF: '
The four spaces of the treble clef spell out FACE and can be remembered as FACE fits in the space'''
The five lines of the bass clef from the bottom to the top
The four spaces of the bass clef from the bottom to the top
The five lines of the alto clef from the bottom to the top
The four spaces of the alto clef from the bottom to the top
The order of sharps in key signature notation is F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯, E♯, B♯, which can be remembered using the phrase
The order of flats is B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭, C♭, and F♭, which can be remembered using the phrase:
To remember the difference between the whole rest and the half rest:
* A whole rest looks like a "hole in the ground", and a half rest looks like a hat.

Music theory

The 7 modern modes may be remembered in order with any of several mnemonics:
* I 'Don't P'lay Loud Music After Lunch
* I 'Don't P'unch Like Muhammad A 'Li
* I' Don't Particularly Like Modes A 'Lot
* I' Don't Particularly Like My Aunt's Lasagna
* Iron Door Fridge Lids Mixup oily Locals
The 7 modern modes in brightest-to-darkest order may be remembered as follows:
* Lilacs In Malaysia Don't Always Provide Longevity
*'' LIM DAPL ''

Philosophy

THE LAD ZAPPA is a mnemonic for the first 11 Ionian philosophers: Thales, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Leucippus, Anaximander, Democritus, Zeno, Anaximenes, Protagoras, Parmenides, Anaxagoras.
THE PLAZA PAD is another mnemonic for the first 11 Ionian philosophers: Thales, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Protagoras, Leucippus, Anaximander, Zeno, Anaximenes, Parmenides, Anaxagoras, Democritus.
SPA is a mnemonic for the philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle in their order of appearance, Socrates first.

Physics

Sequence of colours in a rainbow or visible spectrum :
* Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain
* Ring Out Your Great Bells In Victory.
* Roy G. Biv is also used as a fictitious name
* Raving "Oh, You're Great, Bradley!" Is Valid

Theology

TULIP, summarises the core tenets of Calvinism: Total depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints.

Transportation

Marine
Aviation uses many mnemonics in addition to written checklists. See also Category: Aviation mnemonics

Units of measure

Common SI prefixes: