x

Letter (1)

1. (letter, lowercase) The twenty-fourth letter of the English alphabet, called ex and written in the Latin script.
2. (letter, lowercase) Forming gender-neutral or otherwise more inclusive versions of words, especially Spanish-derived words by replacing both the masculine -o and feminine -a.
   • alumnx, Chicanx (Xicanx), Filipinx, Latinx, Mx, mxn, Tejanx, womxn

Numeral (1)

x

1. (humorous, sometimes) An unknown or unspecified number of.
   • David Cameron gives a Commons statement after every EU summit and normally they follow a predictable pattern; he says that he set out with X number of aims, and then he explains he has achieved all X of them (even if he hasn’t). The most interesting comments normally come in the exchanges with MPs.2016 February 22, Andrew Sparrow, “David Cameron's swipe at Boris Johnson in the Commons – verdict”, in The Guardian
   • But chances are that Google will continue to float new ideas before eventually merging the best of them into a single, coherent application, as it did with Hangouts. And then it'll start the process again. In the meantime, Google will spend money developing x number of duplicate apps, and users...2016 May 19, Aaron Souppouris, “Why Google can't stop making messaging apps”, in Engadget

Conjunction

x

1. (slang) Used between the names of two characters to denote a ship, particularly in anime, manga, and video games.
   • If there is anyone in the audience who can't stand someone pushing a Shinji x Rei thing, I know you want to quit on this fic now.1998 August 31, Greg Upchurch, “[Eva][Fanfic] Aright”, in rec.arts.anime.creative (Usenet)
   • I'm a fairly big Angel x Buffy fan, though I'm not a particularly big fan of Angel. They just work well together, IMO.2002 July 7, Arnold Kim, “Re: Favorite couples??”, in alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer (Usenet)
2. Used in place of and in artist collaborations.
   • Taska Black x DROELOE, Steve Aoki x Lauren Jauregui, etc.

Numeral (2) capitalized: X

X

1. An unknown quantity or unknown value.
   • Let X represent the forecast traffic flow in 20 years’ time.
   • To know whether a word X is heterological, we must already know what X means. (By contrast, I can know that the word “subdermatoglyphic” has certain syntactic properties—it is six-syllabled, contains the letter “m”, etc.— without having any idea of its meaning.) This indirectness is fine as long as...2020 January 30, Richard Johns, “Why Physicalism Seems to Be (and Is) Incompatible with Intentionality”, in Acta Analytica, →DOI, archived from the original on 10 Jul 2025, pages 7-8

Proper noun (1) capitalized: X

X

1. A placeholder for an unknown, suppressed or hypothetical name.
   • The woman known until now as Witness X has been unmasked after a court ruling.
   • Suppose that Mr and Mrs X have been married for many years.
2. A surname, used by those who have had their identity or heritage, including their proper ancestral names, erased or forgotten.
   • Malcolm X
3. (social media) An online social media network, formerly known as Twitter.
   • Two senior USAid security officials were suspended on Sunday for blocking Doge officials from a restricted area, a day after the agency’s website went offline, and Musk posted to X that USAid was “beyond repair” and needed to be shut down.2025 February 3, Richard Luscombe, “Marco Rubio appoints himself head of USAid as workers locked out of office”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 04 Apr 2025

Letter (2) capitalized: X

1. (letter, uppercase) The twenty-fourth letter of the English alphabet, called ex and written in the Latin script.

Noun (1) capitalized: X

X

1. Any mark that looks like that letter, such as a mark made by a person who cannot read or write in lieu of a signature.
2. The spot behind the goal.

Adjective (1) capitalized: X

X (not comparable)

1. Intersex or non-binary (in passports and identification documents).
   • So last summer, when the Massachusetts State Legislature became one of the first in the nation to consider a bill to add an “X” option for nonbinary genders to the “M” and “F” on the state driver’s license, El, 17, was less surprised than some at the maneuver that effectively killed it.2019 May 29, Amy Harmon, “Which Box Do You Check? Some States Are Offering a Nonbinary Option”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 08 Jun 2019

Verb capitalized: X

X (third-person singular simple present Xs, present participle Xing, simple past and past participle Xed)

1. (alternative) Alternative spelling of ex (“to delete; to cross out”).
   • I Xed the ballot for our Congressman last election just because he seemed […]1944, Henry R. Luce, Fortune, volume 30, page 88

Noun (2) capitalized: X

X (uncountable)

1. (slang) Ecstasy, a particular street drug.
   • You can find me in the club, bottle full of bub'. Look, mami, I got the X if you into takin' drugs.2003 January 7, “In da Club” (track 5), in Get Rich or Die Tryin', performed by 50 Cent
   • Tonight the kids will go out and party down in a more righteous mode. Alcohol and not a few tabs of X will be ingested. Club music will throb through big speakers.2008, Stephen King, Graduation Weekend

Adjective (2) capitalized: X

X (not comparable)

1. (dated, UK film certificate) Suitable only for those aged sixteen or (later) eighteen years and over.
2. Obscene; adult; pornographic; XXX.
   • If you go to an X movie you do so knowingly, as does everyone else in the audience. Or if the same thing comes up on TV you can switch over, or, if you wish, enjoy it in relative privacy.1976, Movie Maker, volume 10, numbers 1-6, page 364

Proper noun (2) capitalized: X

X

1. (informal) Christ

Noun (3) capitalized: X

X (plural Xes)

1. Cross, crossing.
   • Kennington via Charing X

Adjective (3) capitalized: X

X (comparative more X, superlative most X)

1. (abbreviation, informal) Abbreviation of extreme.

Proper noun (3) capitalized: X

X

1. (Unix) The X Window System, a windowing system for bitmap displays commonly used in Unix-like systems.

   Synonyms:

   X11