Ax or axe?
In American English write ax; in British and Commonwealth English, axe. ax is a noun meaning “US standard spelling of axe”; axe is a noun meaning “A tool for felling trees or chopping wood etc. consisting of a heavy head…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) axe is about 2.8 times as common as ax.
What is the difference between ax and axe?
| ax | axe | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | USUS standard spelling of axe | 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 To fell or chop with an axe |
| Example | none recorded | His girlfriend/boss/schoolmaster gave him the axe |
| Forms | axes | axes |
| Pronunciation | /æks/ | /æks/ |
| Region | US | no label |
| In writing | 2.2 times per million words | 6.2 times per million words |
Sources: ax and axe in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of ax and axe
ax
- 1
USUS standard spelling of axe
- 2
USUS standard spelling of axe
axe
- 1
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
- 2
To fell or chop with an axe
- 3
To furnish with an axle
- 4
An ancient weapon consisting of a head that has one or two blades and a long handle
- 5
To lay off, terminate or drastically reduce, especially in a rough or ruthless manner; to cancel
The government announced its plans to axe public spending
- 6
informalA dismissal or rejection
His girlfriend/boss/schoolmaster gave him the axe
- 7
A drastic reduction or cutback
the Beeching Axe
- 8
slangA gigging musician's particular instrument, especially a guitar in rock music or a saxophone in jazz
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, ax or axe?
ax appears 2.2 times per million words; axe 6.2 times per million words.
ax 2.2 times per million wordsaxe 6.2 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search ax vs axe?
“ax vs axe” is searched about 6,600 times a month on Google and 160 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“axe vs ax”, “ax or axe”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.