Xoxo
/[ɛksəʊɛksəʊ]/ noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Abbreviation of hugs and kisses, usually placed at the end of a letter. abbreviation, alt-of
- 2 Alternative form of xoxo (an abbreviation for hugs and kisses, usually placed at the end of a letter.) alt-of, alternative
Synonyms
All synonymsEtymology
From use of X/x to mean “kiss” and O/o to mean “hug”. Use of “X” to indicate a kiss attested since 1763, preceded by medieval use of an “X”, which was then kissed by illiterates to indicate a signature. Use of “O” is more recent, and presumably created by analogy (e.g., X/O in tic-tac-toe). Speculative theories on precise origins abound, including folk etymologies (for example, the notion that the X represents the crossed arms of a hug and that the O represents the pursed lips of a kiss).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.