Words that start with X
There are 284 words that start with x in this list, most common first. Filter by letters or length.
No words match that filter.
The most-used words that start with x, and what they mean
These are the 14 that come up most often in written English, so they are the ones worth knowing first.
- xavier
- nounAny of various notable people with this name as given name or surname, especially Saint Francis Xavier, a Spanish Catholic saint and missionary (1506–1552).
- xerox
- noun(Philippines, India, dated in Canada, US, colloquial, informal) A photocopy.
- xenophon
- nounAthenian historian and philosopher born 427 B.C.E. and author of the Anabasis and Memorabilia. He was a pupil of Socrates and became a general during the Persian…
- xyz
- nounA generic placeholder representing a specific name or thing.
- xenon
- nounThe chemical element (symbol Xe) with an atomic number of 54. It is a colorless, odorless, unreactive noble gas, used notably in camera flash technology.
- xenopus
- (Gk., ξενος, xenos = strange, πους, pous = foot, commonly known as the clawed frog) a genus of highly aquatic frogs native to sub-Saharan Africa.
- xylem
- noun(botany) A vascular tissue in land plants primarily responsible for the distribution of water and minerals taken up by the roots; also the primary component of wood.
- xylene
- noun(chemistry) Any of a group of three isomeric aromatic hydrocarbons, found in coal and wood tar.
- xiao
- nounA type of Chinese flute.
- xenophobia
- nounA fear, antipathy, or hatred of strangers or foreigners.
- xhosa
- noun(uncountable) The language of these people, a Bantu language related to Zulu.
- xerxes
- noun(historical) Xerxes I, a Persian king of the Achaemenid dynasty who reigned 485-465 BC.
- xinjiang
- nounAn Uyghur autonomous region of China, located in the sparsely populated northwest. Official name: Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Capital: Ürümqi.
- xanthine
- noun(chemistry) Any of a group of alkaloids that include caffeine, theophylline, and theobromine as well as the parent compound, a precursor of uric acid found in…
Nouns, verbs and adjectives
Of the 284 words in this list, 206 can be used as a noun, including xavier, xerox, xenophon, xyz, xenon. Plenty of words do more than one job: state is a noun, a verb and an adjective depending on how you use it, which is why these numbers add up to more than the list itself.
How this list is built
The words come from the Datamuse language API, then get cleaned up, because the raw output is not much use on its own. Each word is checked against an English dictionary, with a frequency floor for anything not in it, so ordinary inflections survive while noise does not. Roman numerals, fragments and vowel-less abbreviations are stripped out.
What is left is ranked by how often each word actually appears in written English. That ordering is the point: it puts the words you might actually want at the top. The full method is on how we build these.
Common questions
How many words that start with x are there?
This list holds 284, filtered to real dictionary words and ranked by how common they are. English has more if you count obscure and archaic ones, but they are little use to anybody.
Can a word starting with X be a noun?
Yes. 206 of the 284 words on this list can be used as a noun. The breakdown above shows how many work as verbs, adjectives and adverbs too.
How are the words ordered?
By how often each word appears in written English, most common first, so the useful ones are at the top rather than buried under rarities. See how we build these.
Can I search inside the list?
Yes. The filter box narrows the list as you type, and where a list mixes lengths there are buttons to show only words of a given length.