Pronunciations (7)
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/ɛks/
Pronunciation notes
- letter
- name
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/ks/
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/ɡz/
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/kʃ/
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/ɡʒ/
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/z/
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/ʃ/
Numeral
An unknown quantity or unknown value.
- Examples
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Let X represent the forecast traffic flow in 20 years’ time.
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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 X already has an assigned meaning, for in that case the meaning of “heterological” is ultimately grounded. But when X is the word “heterological”, then we are trying to define “heterological” in terms of itself. We have a closed circle, and a contradictory one, due to the negation operator in the definition.
Proper noun
A placeholder for an unknown, suppressed or hypothetical name.
- Examples
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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.
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Although the Take Care Clause grants the president significant authority to enforce the laws, the duty to take care does not include a power to forbid the execution of the laws. Consequently, the president does not have the authority to disregard Congress’s declaration of war against Country X. On the contrary, the president has an obligation to faithfully execute the declaration of war, even against their own beliefs and wishes.
A surname, used by those who have had their identity or heritage, including their proper ancestral names, erased or forgotten.
- Examples
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Malcolm X
An online social media network, formerly known as Twitter.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
Character
The twenty-fourth letter of the English alphabet, called ex and written in the Latin script.
Usage- letter
- uppercase
Noun
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.
The spot behind the goal.
Adjective
Intersex or non-binary (in passports and identification documents).
Usage- not-comparable
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
Noun
Ecstasy, a particular street drug.
Usage- Slang
- Uncountable
- Examples
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You can find me in the club, bottle full of bub'. Look, mami, I got the X if you into takin' drugs.
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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.
I'm a love druggie falling for these drug junkies. Come n call on me besides these X parties. It's fucking hard on my body.
Adjective
Suitable only for those aged sixteen or (later) eighteen years and over.
Usage- Dated
- not-comparable
Obscene; adult; pornographic; XXX.
Usage- not-comparable
- Examples
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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.
Proper noun
Christ
Usage- Informal
Noun
Cross, crossing.
- Examples
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Kennington via Charing X
Proper noun
The X Window System, a windowing system for bitmap displays commonly used in Unix-like systems.
Usage- Unix
- Synonyms
Noun
the cardinal number that is the sum of nine and one; the base of the decimal system
- Broader terms
the 24th letter of the Roman alphabet
- Broader terms
street names for methylenedioxymethamphetamine
- Broader terms