Word.ws English Dictionary

Alex

/ˈæl.ɪks/US/ˈæl.ɪks/

Alex proper noun: a unisex given name from Ancient Greek.

Proper noun (1)

Alex (plural Alexes)

  1. A unisex given name from Ancient Greek.
    • Martin was pretty dull as names went but 'Alex Blake' had a certain dash to it. His publishers hadn't considered Martin's own name to be 'punchy' enough. The pseudonym Alex Blake was chosen after much deliberation, most of which excluded Martin. 'A strong, no-nonsense sort of name', his editor...2006, Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn, Black Swan, published 2007, →ISBN, page 81
    • 'I had a Christmas card from someone calling herself Alex the year before last,' Daniel said. 'I couldn't think who it was.'
      'Oh, yes, she's changed again,' Alice said. 'I never got used to Alexandra, either. It never occurred to me that Sandra was short for Alexandra - anyway, she's Sandra on her...2008, Philip Hensher, The Northern Clemency, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 588

Proper noun (2)

Alex

  1. Nickname for Alexandria: a major city in Alexandria Governorate, Egypt.

Forms of Alex

pluralAlexes

Origin of Alex

Clipping of Alexander, from Ancient Greek Ἀλέξανδρος (Aléxandros) 'he who wards off men', i.e. protector, possibly of Hittite origin. Also from Alexius, from the same Ancient Greek first element, "helping, defending". These two origins of Alex are indistinguishable in most languages. The female name has the same root, a clipping of Alexandra or the female name Alexis, in some cases also a spelling variant of Alix.

Clipping of Alexandria.

Words formed from Alex

Phrases with Alex

Words that rhyme with Alex

Questions about Alex

What does Alex mean?
Alex means a unisex given name from Ancient Greek.
What part of speech is Alex?
Alex is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Alex?
Alex is pronounced /ˈæl.ɪks/ (UK).

Words near Alex in the dictionary

  1. alewhaps
  2. alewife
  3. Alewine
  4. alewives
  5. alews
  6. Alex
  7. Alex Hamilton
  8. Alex Hamiltons
  9. Alex.
  10. Alexa
  11. alexander

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Alex (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Alex.wav.

Cite this entry: “Alex.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/alex. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.