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X, or x, is the twenty-fourth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ex'' (pronounced ), plural ''exes''."X", ''Oxford English Dictionary'', 2nd edition (1989); ''Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1993); "ex", ''op. cit''.

History

The letter , representing , was inherited from the Etruscan alphabet. It perhaps originated in the of the Euboean alphabet or another Western Greek alphabet, which also represented . Its relationship with the of the Eastern Greek alphabets, which represented , is uncertain.

The pronunciation of in the Romance languages underwent sound changes, with various outcomes:
* French: (e.g. ''laisser'' from ''laxare'')
* Italian: (e.g. ''asse'' from ''axem'') and, in some cases, (e.g. ''lasciare'' from ''laxare'')
* Portuguese: (e.g. ''eixo'' from ''axem'')
* Romanian: (e.g. ''coapsă'' from ''coxa'') and (e.g. ''lăsa'' from ''laxare'')
* Old Spanish:
** Spanish: (e.g. ''cuja'' from ''coxa'')
In Old Spanish, came to represent , which it still represents in most Iberian languages and in the orthographies of other languages influenced by Spanish, such as Nahuatl. In French (with a few exceptions), Italian, Romanian, and modern Spanish, was replaced by other letters.

The use of to represent was reintroduced to the Romance languages via Latin loanwords. In many words, the was voiced as .

Use in writing systems

English

In English orthography, is typically pronounced as the voiceless consonant cluster when it follows the stressed vowel (e.g. ''ox''), and the voiced consonant when it precedes the stressed vowel (e.g. ''exam''). It is also pronounced when it precedes a silent and a stressed vowel (e.g. ''exhaust''). Due to yod-coalescence, the sequence before a vowel can be pronounced resulting from earlier , e.g. in ''-xion(-)'', ''-xious(-)''. Similarly, the sequence can be pronounced with (e.g. ''flexure'', ''sexual'') or (in ''luxury'' and its derivatives). Due to NG-coalescence, the sequence can be pronounced in ''anxiety''.

When ends a word, it is always (e.g. ''fax''), except in loan words such as ''faux''. When does start a word, it is usually pronounced 'z' (e.g. ''xylophone'', ''xanthan''). When starting in some names or as its own representation, it is pronounced 'eks', in rare recent loanwords or foreign proper names, it can also be pronounced (e.g. the obsolete Vietnamese monetary unit '' xu'') or (e.g. Chinese names starting with ''Xi'', like Xiaomi or Xinjiang). Many of the words that start with are of Greek origin, standardized trademarks (''Xerox''), or acronyms (''XC'').

In abbreviations, it can represent "trans-" (e.g. ''XMIT'' for transmit, ''XFER'' for transfer), "cross-" (e.g. ''X-ing'' for crossing, ''XREF'' for cross-reference), "Christ-" (e.g. ''Xmas'' for Christmas, ''Xian'' for Christians, Christian), the "crys-" in crystal (''XTAL''), "by" (''SXSW'' for South by Southwest), or various words starting with "ex-" (e.g. ''XL'' for extra large, ''XOR'' for Exclusive disjunction, exclusive-or, or the extinction symbol).

X is the Letter frequency, third least frequently used letter in English (after and ), with a frequency of about 0.15% in words. There are very few English words that start with (the fewest of any letter).

Romance languages

In Latin, stood for . In the Romance languages, as a result of assorted phonetic changes, has other pronunciations:
*In Catalan language, Catalan, has three pronunciations; the most common is ; as in ''xarop'' ('syrup'). Others are: ; ''fixar'' ('to fix'), ; ''examen''. In addition, gets voiced to before voiced consonants; ''caixmir''. Catalan also has the digraph , pronounced .
*In Galician language, Galician and Leonese language, Leonese, is pronounced in most cases (often used in place of etymological ''g'' or ''j''). The pronunciation occurs in learned words, such as '''taxativo''' (taxing). However, Galician speakers tend to pronounce it , especially when it appears before plosives, such as in ''externo'' ('external').
*In French, usually represents or (primarily in words beginning with ex- followed by a vowel) . It is pronounced in some city names such as ''Brussels, Bruxelles'' (although some people pronounce it 'ks') or ''Auxerre''; it is nevertheless pronounced in Aix (disambiguation), Aix, the name of several towns. At the ends of other words, it is silent (or in Liaison (French), liaison if the next word starts with a vowel). Two exceptions are pronounced : ''six'' ('six') and ''dix'' ('ten'). It is pronounced in ''sixième'' and ''dixième''.
*In Italian, is either pronounced , as in ''extra'', ''uxorio'', ''xilofono'', or , as in ''exogamia'', when it is preceded by and followed by a vowel. In several related languages, notably Venetian language, Venetian, it represents the voiced sibilant . It is also used, mainly amongst young people, as a short written form for "per" (meaning "for"); for example, "x sempre" ("forever"). This is because in Italian, the ×, multiplication sign is called "per". However, is found only in loanwords, as it is not part of the standard Italian alphabet; in most words with , this letter may be replaced with 's' or 'ss' (with different pronunciation: ''xilofono''/''silofono'', ''taxi''/''tassì'') or, rarely, by 'cs' (with the same pronunciation: ''claxon''/'':it:clacson, clacson'').
*In Portuguese, has four main pronunciations; the most common is , as in ''xícara'' ('cup'). The other sounds are: as in ''flexão'' ('flexion'); , when preceded by E and followed by a consonant, as in ''contexto'' ( in European Portuguese), and in a small number of other words, such as ''próximo'' (close/next); and (the rarest) , which occurs in the prefix "ex-" before a vowel, as in ''exagerado'' ('exaggerated'). A rare fifth sound is , coexisting with and as acceptable pronunciations in ''exantema'' and in words with the Greek prefix 'hexa-'.
*In Sardinian language, Sardinian and Ligurian (Romance language), Ligurian, represents .
*In Old Spanish, was pronounced , as it is still currently in other Iberian Romance languages. Later, the sound evolved to a sound. In modern Spanish, due to a spelling reform, whenever is used for the sound it has been replaced with , including in words that originally had such as ''ejemplo'' or ''ejercicio'', though is still retained for some names (notably "México", even though "Méjico" may sometimes be used in Spain). Presently, represents the sound (word-initially), or the consonant cluster (e.g. ''oxígeno'', ''examen''). Rarely, it can be pronounced as in Old Spanish in some proper nouns such as ''Raxel'' (a variant of ''Rachel'') and ''Uxmal''.
*In Venetian language, Venetian, represents the voiced alveolar sibilant , much like in Portuguese 'exagerado', English 'xylophone' or in the French 'sixième'. Examples from medieval texts include ''raxon'' ('reason'), ''prexon'' ('prison'), ''dexerto'' ('desert'), and ''chaxa'' or ''caxa'' ('home'). Nowadays, the best-known word is ''xe'' (is/are). The most notable exception to this rule is the name ''Venexia'', , in which has evolved from the initial voiced sibilant to the present-day voiceless sibilant .

Other languages

In languages which adopted the Latin script, Latin alphabet later, is used for various sounds, in some cases inspired by Latin or its descendants, but in others for unrelated consonants. Since the various Romance pronunciations of can often be written in other ways, the letter becomes available for other sounds.
*In Albanian language, Albanian, represents while the Digraph (orthography), digraph represents .
*It represents (voiceless velar fricative) in Apache, Azerbaijani language, Azerbaijani, Kurdish language, Kurdish (Hawar alphabet), Georgian language, Georgian (when Latinized), Lojban, Pashto (when Latinized), Tatar language, Tatar (Jaꞑalif, Zamanälif, official romanization of 2012), Uzbek language, Uzbek, and Uyghur language, Uyghur (Uyghur Latin alphabet, Latin script).
*In Basque language, Basque, represents . Additionally, the digraph represents .
*In Hanyu Pinyin, Standard Chinese's official transcription system in China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan, the letter represents the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative , for instance in 'Xi (surname), Xi', .
*In Dutch language, Dutch, usually represents , except in the name of the island of Texel, which is pronounced ''Tessel''. This is because of Dutch language#Historical sound changes, historical sound-changes in Dutch, where all sounds have been replaced by sounds. Words with an in the Dutch language are nowadays usually loanwords. In the Languages of Belgium, Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, family names with are not uncommon (e.g. ''Dierckxa'' and ''Hendrickx'').
*In Esperanto, the x-convention replaces , , , , , and with x-suffixes: , , , , , and .
*In German language, German, generally pronounced ; in native words, however, such as ''Ochs'' or ''wachsen'', the cluster is often written .
*In transliterations of Languages of India, Indian languages, primarily Indo-Aryan languages, represents the consonant cluster in alternate spellings of words containing 'क्ष' (kṣ), especially names such as Laxmi and Dikshit, Dixit. Less frequently, is used to represent 'ख़' .
*In Lao language, Lao, based on romanization of Lao#Consonants, romanization of Lao consonants, represents , while appears to be homophonous with , it is a "low consonant" and affects the tone of the following vowel, e.g. in Lan Xang.
*In Maltese language, Maltese, is pronounced or, in some cases, (only in loanwords such as 'televixin', and not for all speakers).
*In Nahuatl, represents .
*In Nguni languages, represents the alveolar lateral click .
*In Norwegian language, Norwegian, is generally pronounced , but since the 19th century, there has been a tendency to spell it out as ; it may still be retained in personal names, though it is fairly rare, and occurs mostly in foreign words and SMS language. Usage in Danish language, Danish and Finnish language, Finnish is similar (while Swedish language, Swedish, on the other hand, makes frequent use of in native words as well as in loanwords).
*In Pirahã language, Pirahã, symbolizes the glottal stop .
*In Polish language, Polish, was used prior to 19th century both in loanwords and native words and was pronounced or , e.g. ''xiążę'', ''xięstwo'' (now ''książę'', ''księstwo''). This was later replaced by and in almost all words and remained only in a few loanwords as 'xenia' (''xenien''), surnames as ''Axentowicz'', ''Rexemowski'', and ''Xiężopolski'', names as ''Xawery'', and ''Xymena'', and abbreviations.
*In Vietnamese alphabet#Consonants, Vietnamese, represents . This sound was in Middle Vietnamese, resembling the Portuguese , spelled .

An illustrative example of as a "leftover" letter is the differing usage in three different Cushitic languages:
*Afar language, Afar: voiced alveolar implosive
*Oromo language, Oromo: alveolar ejective
*Somali language, Somali: voiceless pharyngeal fricative

Other systems

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, represents a voiceless velar fricative.

Other uses

* X mark has a widely accepted meaning of "negative" or "wrong".
* The Roman numeral X represents the number 10.
* In mathematics, ''x'' is commonly used as the name for an independent variable or unknown value. The modern tradition of using ''x'', ''y'', and ''z'' to represent an Unknown (mathematics), unknown (''incognita'') was introduced by René Descartes in ''La Géométrie'' (1637). As a result of its use in algebra, X is often used to represent unknowns in other circumstances (e.g. X-rays, Generation X, ''The X-Files'', and ''The Man from Planet X'').
* On some Identity document, identification documents, the letter X represents a non-binary gender, where F means female and M means male.
* In the Cartesian coordinate system, ''x'' is used to refer to the horizontal axis.
* It is also sometimes used as a typographic approximation for the multiplication sign, . In mathematical typesetting, ''x'' meaning an algebraic variable is normally in italic type ($x\!$), partly to avoid confusion with the multiplication symbol. In fonts containing both ''x'' (the letter) and × (the multiplication sign), the two glyphs are dissimilar.
* It can be used as an abbreviation for 'between' in the context of historical dating; e.g. "1483 x 1485".
* Maps and other images sometimes use an X to label a specific location, leading to the expression "X marks the spot".
* In art or fashion, the use of X indicates a collaboration by two or more artists, e.g. Aaron Koblin x Takashi Kawashima. This application, which originated in Japan, now extends to other kinds of collaboration outside the art world. This usage mimics the use of a similar mark in Hybrid name (botany), denoting botanical hybrids, for which scientifically the Multiplication sign#Uses, multiplication × is used, but informally, a lowercase "x" is also used.
* At the end of a letter or other correspondence, 'Hugs and kisses, x' can mean a kiss; the earliest example of this usage cited by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' is from 1878.
* An X rating denotes media, such as movies, that are intended for adults only.
* In the Korean language, a series of Xs is used as a visual bleep censor for subtitles and captions, serving the same role as an asterisk (*).
* In the C programming language, "x" preceded by zero (as in 0x or 0X) is used to denote hexadecimal literal values.
* X is commonly used as a prefix term in nouns related to the X Window System and UNIX System V, Unix.

Related characters

Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet

*X with diacritics: Diaeresis (diacritic), Ẍ ẍ Ẋ, Ẋ ẋ X̂, X̂ x̂ ᶍ
*International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA-specific symbols related to X:
*Teuthonista phonetic transcription-specific symbols related to X:
**
**
**
**
* : Modifier letter small x is used for phonetic transcription
* : Subscript small x is used in Indo-European studies

Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets

*Χ χ : Greek alphabet, Greek letter Chi (letter), Chi, from which the following derive:
**Ꭓ ꭓ : Latin chi
**Х х : Cyrillic letter Kha (Cyrillic), Kha
** : Coptic alphabet, Coptic letter Khe, which derives from Greek Chi
** : Gothic alphabet, Gothic letter enguz, which derives from Greek Chi
** 𐌗 : Old Italic script, Old Italic X, which derives from Greek Chi, and is the ancestor of modern Latin X
*** : Runes, Runic letter Gyfu, which may derive from old Italic X
*Ξ ξ : Greek letter Xi (letter), Xi, which was used in place of Chi in the Eastern (and the modern) Greek alphabets

Other representations

Computing

Other

See also

*X mark

Notes

References

External links

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ISO basic Latin letters
Cross symbols