Word.ws English Dictionary

ixnay

/ˈɪks(ˌ)neɪ/

ixnay interjection: no.

Interjection

  1. (slang) No.

Noun

ixnay (uncountable)

  1. (slang) Nothing; nix; often in the phrase "ixnay on ...", indicating something that must not be mentioned, often in Pig Latin
    • Ixnay on the "W-A-L-K" while the dogs can hear you.
    • Homer Simpson: Being a cop husband is one mighty sweet deal. This police radio entertains me with other people's miseries, we get a free funeral for Marge (god forbid), and I can run background checks on whomever I want . . . Mohammar.
      Moe Szyslak: Homer, please, please! Ixnay on the ohammar-May!1995 May 7, Mark Kirkland, “The Springfield Connection”, in The Simpsons, season 6, episode 23, production code 2F21

Verb

ixnay (third-person singular simple present ixnays, present participle ixnaying, simple past and past participle ixnayed)

  1. (slang, transitive) To reject or cancel something; nix.
    • If I wasn't so bored out of my mind, I would have ixnayed that idea.2009, Kathleen Kaska, Murder at the Arlington, Salvo Press, →ISBN
    • Personally, I'd rather feel momentarily bummed when my agent ixnays a two-paragraph idea than totally crushed when she ixnays a 110-page screenplay it took six months to perfect.2013, Gervich Chad, How to Manage Your Agent: A Writer’s Guide to Hollywood Representation, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 295

Examples of ixnay in a sentence

  • Voice, ixnay on the estioning-quay of Iery-fay Ecretary-say!2022 July 15, DRWolf001, “TF2 Analysis: New Opportunities Part 2”, in YouTube, spoken by Thespio:
  • You didn't want to ask for a handout—you have a vague memory of him ixnaying advances when you signed your contract—but you don't have much choice.2015, Angelina Mirabella, The Sweetheart: A Novel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 158:
  • TRUMP'S MEDIA BUBBLE COLLAPSES: Fox News struggles to ixnay the Epsteinway.2025 July 22, “MSNBC”, in YouTube:

Forms of ixnay

Interjection
alternative formix-nay
Verb
third-person singular presentixnays
present participleixnaying
past participleixnayed
pastixnayed

Origin of ixnay

Pig Latin version of nix; possibly the only Pig Latin word to enter common American English besides amscray and igpay. Ixnay and amscray were used widely in The Three Stooges shorts and The Flintstones episodes, possibly the main sources of popularity for the words.

Questions about ixnay

What does ixnay mean?
Ixnay means no.
How do you use ixnay in a sentence?
Voice, ixnay on the estioning-quay of Iery-fay Ecretary-say!
What part of speech is ixnay?
Ixnay can be an interjection, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce ixnay?
Ixnay is pronounced /ˈɪks(ˌ)neɪ/.

Words near ixnay in the dictionary

  1. Ixion
  2. Ixionian
  3. ixionid
  4. ixionids
  5. Ixmiquilpan
  6. ixnay
  7. ixnayed
  8. ixnaying
  9. ixnays
  10. ixocutis
  11. ixode

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ixnay (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: En-us-ixnay.ogg.

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