ax
/æks/
ax is the US standard spelling of axe.
ax is the alternative form of ask.
Meaning of axe
Noun
axe (plural axes)
- A tool for felling trees or chopping wood etc. consisting of a heavy head flattened to a blade on one side, and a handle attached to it.
- An ancient weapon consisting of a head that has one or two blades and a long handle.
- A dismissal or rejection.
- His girlfriend/boss/schoolmaster gave him the axe.
- A drastic reduction or cutback.
- the Beeching Axe
- A gigging musician's particular instrument, especially a guitar in rock music or a saxophone in jazz.
- A position, interest, or reason in buying and selling stock, often with ulterior motives.
- A financial dealer has an axe in a stock that his buyers don't know about, giving him an advantage in making the most profit.
Meaning of ask
Verb
ask (third-person singular simple present asks, present participle asking, simple past and past participle asked)
- To request (information, or an answer to a question).
- I asked her age.
- To request or enquire of (a person).
- I asked her (for) her age.
- To request (an item or service) (see also ask for).
- to ask for a second helping at dinner
- To request (someone to do something).
- Emma asked Jim to close his eyes.
- To request permission (to do something).
- She asked to see the doctor.
- To put forward (a question) to be answered.
- to ask a question
Proper noun capitalized: Ax
Ax
- A surname.
Forms of ax
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | axes |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | axes |
| present participle | axing |
| past participle | axed |
| past | axed |
Origin of ax
From Middle English axen, aksen, axien, from Old English ācsian and āxian, showing metathesis from āscian. Ax/aks was common in literary works until about 1600.
From the German surname, spelling variant of Axt.
Words formed from ax
Phrases with ax
- ice ax
- ax head
- Dane ax
- fire ax
- hand ax
- meat ax
- ax heads
- battle ax
- jedding ax
- ax to grind
- boarding ax
- gave the ax
6 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with ax
Questions about ax
- What does ax mean?
- Ax means a surname.
- What is ax the US standard spelling of?
- Ax is the US standard spelling of axe.
- What part of speech is ax?
- Ax is a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce ax?
- Ax is pronounced /æks/.
Words near ax in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ax (page history and authors); Ax (page history and authors); axe (page history and authors); ask (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-ax.wav.
Cite this entry: “ax.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ax. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.