ex
/ɛks/
"ex" is a 2-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ex” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,633 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,633
- frequency rank, English
- 2
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The name of the Latin script letter X/x.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ex |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɛks/ |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #1,633 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ex” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ex is 2 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɛks/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,633 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "The name of the Latin script letter X/x.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for ex in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ey", "ez", "eye", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin ex. The correct English form is ex, spelled E-X.
Definition
- 1The name of the Latin script letter X/x.
Etymology
From Latin ex.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “ex”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is E-X - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɛks/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ey” - see the side-by-side comparison. ex vs ey
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.