ox
/ɑks/noun
ox is spelled O-X: 2 letters and one syllable. It appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,613th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, ox means “An adult castrated male of cattle (B. taurus), especially when used as a beast of burden” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of ox is oxen; Wiktionary also lists oxes (nonstandard).
How many letters and syllables are in ox?
| Letters | 2: O-X |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.0 times per million words; the 15,613th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is ox?
Ox appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,613th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce ox?
- UK /ɒks/
- British /ɔks/
- US /ɑks/
Ox has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-ca-ox.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with ox?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as ox from its last stressed vowel (/ɑks/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of ox
- oxen plural
- ox.
- oxy
- oxy.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does ox mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An adult castrated male of cattle (B. taurus), especially when used as a beast of burden.
a yoke of oxen
- 2
Any bovine animal (genus Bos).
Here the same four kinds are mentioned ... These are sheep, goats, camels and oxen.
- 3
Abbreviation of oxygen.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Ox in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | bœuf |
| German | Ochse , Rind, Zugrind, Zugtier |
| Portuguese | boi |
| Spanish | buey , toro, novillo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does ox come from?
From Middle English oxe, from Old English oxa, from Proto-West Germanic *ohsō, from Proto-Germanic *uhsô (compare West Frisian okse, Dutch os, German Ochse), from Proto-Indo-European *uksḗn.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).