Ax

//æks// name, noun, verb

name, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    US standard spelling of axe. US, alt-of, standard
  2. 2
    an edge tool with a heavy bladed head mounted across a handle wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    US standard spelling of axe. US, alt-of, standard
  2. 2
    Alternative form of ask. alt-of, alternative, dialectal, nonstandard

    "When they were come togedder, they axed off hym, sayinge: Master wilt thou at this tyme restore agayne the kyngdom of israhel?"

  3. 3
    terminate wordnet
  4. 4
    chop or split with an ax wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.

Synonyms

All synonyms
amputateaxeaxeaxebattle-axbeheading

Example

More examples

"The Canadian chopped down the tree with an ax."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English axen, aksen, axien, from Old English ācsian and āxian, showing metathesis from āscian. Ax/aks was common in literary works until about 1600.

Etymology 2

From the German surname, spelling variant of Axt.

Related phrases

Ax-Grothendieck theoremAx-Kochen theorembreak-axgive the ax

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.