ox

See also: Appendix:Variations of "ox"

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɑks/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒks/
• Rhymes: -ɒks

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

Etymology 1

Two oxen.

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.

Cognate with Welsh ych (“ox”), Tocharian A ops, Tocharian B okso (“draft-ox”), Avestan 𐬎𐬑𐬱𐬀𐬥 (uxšan, “bull”), Sanskrit उक्षन् (ukṣán).

Noun

ox (plural oxen or (nonstandard) oxes)

1. An adult castrated male of cattle (B. taurus), especially when used as a beast of burden.
2. Any bovine animal (genus Bos).

   Synonym: (archaic) neat

   • 1934, commentary on the Qur'an (Sura 39 verse 6) by Abdullah Yusuf Ali:

     Here the same four kinds are mentioned ... These are sheep, goats, camels and oxen.

Synonyms

• (castrated male of cattle): bullock, steer

Derived terms

• dumb as an ox
• Durham Ox
• grey ox
• grunting ox
• have the black ox tread on one's foot
• Indian ox
• Japanese ox
• Javan ox
• know someone from Adam's off ox
• musk-ox
• musk ox
• near ox
• nox
• off ox
• one hair of a woman can draw more than a hundred pair of oxen
• oxback
• oxbane
• ox beetle
• ox bile
• oxbird
• ox-biter
• oxblood
• oxbow
• ox bow
• ox-butt
• oxcart
• ox-eye
• oxeye
• ox-eyed
• ox-eye daisy
• oxflesh
• oxfly
• Oxford
• ox gall
• oxgall
• oxgang
• oxgate
• oxgoad
• oxhead
• oxheart
• oxherd
• Oxhey
• oxhide
• oxhind
• oxhorn
• oxish
• ox is in the ditch
• oxkind
• ox knee
• oxland
• oxless
• oxlike
• oxling
• oxpecker
• ox pith
• ox ray
• oxshoe
• oxskin
• oxtail
• oxteam
• oxtongue
• ox tongue spear, ox-tongue spear
• ox warbler
• play the giddy ox
• pulse ox
• sea-ox
• shrub ox
• strong as an ox
• whose ox is gored
• wild ox

Related terms

• aurochs (from *ūrô (“aurochs”) + *uhsô (“ox”))

Descendants

• → Abenaki: aksen (via "oxen")
• → Malecite-Passamaquoddy: akson (via "oxen")
• → Unami: aksën (via "oxen")

Translations

an adult castrated male of cattle

• Afrikaans: os (af)
• Akkadian: 𒄞 m (GUD /⁠alpu⁠/)
• Armenian: եզ (hy) (ez)

  Old Armenian: եզն (ezn)

• Asturian: güe (ast)
• Avar: оц (oc)
• Azerbaijani: öküz (az)
• Bashkir: үгеҙ (ügeź)
• Basque: idi (eu)
• Belarusian: вол m (vol)
• Bulgarian: вол (bg) m (vol)
• Carpathian Rusyn: віл (vil)
• Catalan: bou (ca) m
• Chechen: сту (stu)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 公牛 (zh) (gōngniú)

• Comorian:

  Ngazidja Comorian: mfulwa mɓe

• Crimean Tatar: öküz
• Czech: vůl (cs) m
• Dutch: os (nl) m
• Egyptian: (ngꜣw), (jḥ)
• Estonian: härg (et) sg
• Finnish: härkä (fi)
• French: bœuf (fr) m
• Frisian:

  North Frisian: Aus (Sylt)

• Gagauz: öküz
• Galician: boi (gl) m
• Ge'ez: ሶር (sor)
• German: Ochse (de) m

  Alemannic German: Ochs m

• Gothic: 𐌰𐌿𐌷𐍃𐌰 m (auhsa)
• Greek: βόδι (el) n (vódi)
• Haitian Creole: bèf
• Hebrew: שׁוֹר (he) m (šor)
• Hindi: बैल (hi) m (bail)
• Hungarian: ökör (hu)
• Icelandic: uxi (is)
• Indonesian: lembu (id)
• Ingrian: härkä, hällö
• Italian: bue (it) m
• Javanese: sapi (jv)

  Old Javanese: lĕmbu

• Kaingang: monh
• Kazakh: өгіз (ögız)
• Kyrgyz: өгүз (ky) (ögüz)
• Ladin: bo m
• Latin: bōs (la) m
• Latvian: vērsis (lv) m
• Lithuanian: jautis (lt)
• Livonian: ǟrga
• Lombard: bö, bœu
• Maltese: gendus m
• Marathi: बैल m (bail)
• Middle English: oxe
• Mòcheno: ocks m
• Mon: ဂၠဴကၟက်
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: шар (mn) (šar), шар үхэр (šar üxer)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: okse (no) m

  Nynorsk: okse m

• Occitan: buòu (oc) m
• Old Turkic: 𐰈𐰛𐰈𐰕 (üküz /⁠öküz⁠/)
• Oromo: sangaa
• Pali: goṇa
• Pannonian Rusyn: вол m (vol)
• Piedmontese: beu m
• Polish: wół (pl) m animal
• Portuguese: boi (pt) m
• Romagnol: bo m
• Romani: guruv m
• Romanian: bou (ro)
• Russian: вол (ru) m (vol)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: во̑л m, во̑ m

  Latin: vȏl (sh) m, vȏ (sh) m

• Sherpa: གླང (glang)
• Sicilian: voi (scn) m
• Sidamo: hando
• Sikkimese: གླང (glang)
• Slovak: vôl (sk) m
• Slovene: vol (sl) m
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: woł m

  Upper Sorbian: woł m

• Spanish: buey (es) m
• Sumerian: 𒄞 (GUD)
• Swedish: oxe (sv) c
• Tarifit: afunas m
• Tibetan: གླང (glang)
• Tigrinya: ብዕራይ (ti) (bəʿray)
• Turkish: öküz (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: اوكوز (öküz), صیغير (sığır)

• Turkmen: öküz
• Udi: ус (us)
• Ukrainian: віл (uk) (vil)
• Urdu: بَیل m (bail)
• Uzbek: hoʻkiz (uz)
• Vietnamese: bò đực thiến
• Walloon: boû (wa) m
• Welsh: ych (cy) m
• Yiddish: אָקס m (oks)

any bovine animal used as a beast of burden

• Afrikaans: os (af), bees (af)
• Akan: nandwie (Abron)
• Albanian: ka (sq)
• Altai:

  Southern Altai: ӧкӱс (öküs), бука (buka)

• Amharic: በሬ (bäre)
• Arabic: ثَوْر (ar) m (ṯawr)
• Armenian: եզ (hy) (ez)

  Old Armenian: եզն (ezn)

• Aromanian: bou m
• Asturian: güe (ast) m
• Azerbaijani: öküz (az) m
• Basque: idi (eu) m
• Belarusian: вол m (vol), бык m (byk) (bull)
• Bulgarian: вол (bg) m (vol)
• Catalan: bou (ca) m
• Cherokee: ᎦᏓᎵ (gadali)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 犉 (zh) (rún), 牛 (zh) (niú) (bull or cow)

• Czech: vůl (cs) m
• Dalmatian: bu m
• Danish: okse (da) c
• Dutch: os (nl) m
• Eshtehardi: گو m (geow)
• Esperanto: okso
• Estonian: härg (et)
• Ewe: nyi
• Faroese: oksi m
• Finnish: härkä (fi), nauta (fi)
• French: bœuf (fr) m
• Frisian:

  North Frisian: oxse

• Friulian: bo m, nemâl m
• Galician: boi (gl) m
• German: Rind (de) m; Zugrind n; Zugtier (de) n
• Gothic: 𐌰𐌿𐌷𐍃𐌰 m (auhsa)
• Greek: βόδι (el) n (vódi)
• Haitian Creole: bèf
• Hebrew: שׁוֹר (he) m (šor)
• Hindi: बैल (hi) m (bail)
• Hungarian: ökör (hu)
• Icelandic: uxi (is)
• Indonesian: lembu (id)
• Irish: damh m
• Italian: bue (it) m, bove (it)
• Japanese: 去勢雄牛 (きょせいおうし, kyosei ōshi)
• Karachay-Balkar: ёгюз (ögüz)
• Kazakh: өгіз (ögız)
• Khmer: ^{(please verify)} គោឈ្មោល (go chmol)
• Korean: ^{(please verify)} 악대소 (ko) (akdaeso) , ^{(please verify)} 불깐소 (bulkkanso)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: ga (ku)

• Latgalian: vierss m
• Latin: bōs (la) m, armentum n
• Latvian: vērsis (lv)
• Lithuanian: jautis (lt) m
• Livonian: ǟrga
• Low German: Oss m
• Lü: ᦷᦣ (ho)
• Luxembourgish: Ochs m, Uess m
• Macedonian: вол (mk) m (vol)
• Middle English: oxe
• Mòcheno: ocks
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: үхэр (mn) (üxer)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: okse (no) m

  Nynorsk: okse m

• Nuosu: ꇌ (le)
• Occitan: buòu (oc) m
• Old Church Slavonic: волъ m (volŭ)
• Old East Slavic: волъ m (volŭ)
• Old Norse: oxi m, uxi m
• Old Turkic: 𐰈𐰛𐰈𐰕 (üküz /⁠öküz⁠/)
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: گاو (fa) (gâv), وَرْزا (varzâ), بَرْزَگاو (barzagâv)

• Polish: wół (pl) m
• Portuguese: boi (pt) m
• Romanian: bou (ro) m
• Romansh: bov
• Russian: вол (ru) m (vol), бык (ru) m (byk) (bull)
• Sardinian:

  Campidanese: boi m

  Logudorese: boe m

• Scottish Gaelic: damh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: во̑л m, во̑ m, би̏к m (bull)

  Latin: vȏl (sh) m, vȏ (sh) m, bȉk (sh) m (bull)

• Sicilian: voi (scn) m, jencu (scn) m
• Slovak: vôl (sk) m
• Slovene: vol (sl) m
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: woł m

  Upper Sorbian: woł m

• Spanish: buey (es) m, toro (es) m, novillo (es) m
• Swahili: ngʼombe
• Swedish: oxe (sv) c
• Tagalog: kapong baka
• Tajik: барзагов (tg) (barzagov)
• Tamil: காளை (ta) (kāḷai)
• Taos: mùoyaʼána, tùluʼúna
• Telugu: ఎద్దు (te) ? (eddu)
• Thai: วัว (th) (wuua), โค (th) (koo)
• Tibetan: གླང (glang)
• Tigrinya: ብዕራይ (ti) (bəʿray)
• Tok Pisin: bulmakau
• Turkish: öküz (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: اۊكۏز (öküz)

• Ukrainian: віл (uk) m (vil), бик (uk) m (byk) (bull)
• Urdu: بَیل m (bail)
• Uzbek: bizon (uz), buyvol
• Vietnamese: bò (vi)
• Volapük: hobub (vo)
• Võro: härg
• Welsh: ych (cy) m
• Yiddish: אָקס m (oks)
• Zazaki: ga (diq)

Etymology 2

Clipping of oxygen.

Alternative forms

• O, O., OX, Ox., Ox, ox., OXY, Oxy, oxy, oxy.

Noun

ox (uncountable)

1. Abbreviation of oxygen.
   • 2020, Carla Perez, 42:40 from the start, in Breathtaking: K2 - The World's Most Dangerous Mountain | Eddie Bauer‎^[1], YouTube, Eddie Bauer, archived from the original on 22 May 2020:

     I'm super excited to be on the summit of K2! No Ox! (coughs) It was hard.

Coordinate terms

• hydrolox
• kerolox
• methalox

Related terms

• gox
• heliox
• lox
• nitrox
• triox

Anagrams

• XO, xo

Azerbaijani

Other scripts

Cyrillic		ох
Arabic		اوْخ

Etymology

Cognate with Old Turkic 𐰸 (q̊¹ /⁠oq⁠/, “arrow”), Chuvash ухӑ (uh̬ă), from Proto-Turkic *ok.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

ox (definite accusative oxu, plural oxlar)

1. arrow
2. axis
3. axle

Declension

Declension of ox

	singular	plural
nominative	ox	oxlar
definite accusative	oxu	oxları
dative	oxa	oxlara
locative	oxda	oxlarda
ablative	oxdan	oxlardan
definite genitive	oxun	oxların

Possessive forms of ox

	nominative
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	oxum	oxlarım
sənin (“your”)	oxun	oxların
onun (“his/her/its”)	oxu	oxları
bizim (“our”)	oxumuz	oxlarımız
sizin (“your”)	oxunuz	oxlarınız
onların (“their”)	oxu or oxları	oxları
	accusative
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	oxumu	oxlarımı
sənin (“your”)	oxunu	oxlarını
onun (“his/her/its”)	oxunu	oxlarını
bizim (“our”)	oxumuzu	oxlarımızı
sizin (“your”)	oxunuzu	oxlarınızı
onların (“their”)	oxunu or oxlarını	oxlarını
	dative
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	oxuma	oxlarıma
sənin (“your”)	oxuna	oxlarına
onun (“his/her/its”)	oxuna	oxlarına
bizim (“our”)	oxumuza	oxlarımıza
sizin (“your”)	oxunuza	oxlarınıza
onların (“their”)	oxuna or oxlarına	oxlarına
	locative
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	oxumda	oxlarımda
sənin (“your”)	oxunda	oxlarında
onun (“his/her/its”)	oxunda	oxlarında
bizim (“our”)	oxumuzda	oxlarımızda
sizin (“your”)	oxunuzda	oxlarınızda
onların (“their”)	oxunda or oxlarında	oxlarında
	ablative
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	oxumdan	oxlarımdan
sənin (“your”)	oxundan	oxlarından
onun (“his/her/its”)	oxundan	oxlarından
bizim (“our”)	oxumuzdan	oxlarımızdan
sizin (“your”)	oxunuzdan	oxlarınızdan
onların (“their”)	oxundan or oxlarından	oxlarından
	genitive
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	oxumun	oxlarımın
sənin (“your”)	oxunun	oxlarının
onun (“his/her/its”)	oxunun	oxlarının
bizim (“our”)	oxumuzun	oxlarımızın
sizin (“your”)	oxunuzun	oxlarınızın
onların (“their”)	oxunun or oxlarının	oxlarının

Derived terms

• oxatan
• oxluq

Further reading

• “ox” in Obastan.com.

Bonan

Alternative forms

• ok
• oke (Gansu)

Etymology

From Proto-Mongolic *ög-. Cognate to Mongolian өгөх (ögöx) and perhaps Khitan 𘲆 (*û).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɵx/

Verb

ox

1. (Qinghai) to give

   Be Dromada samtexge oxgu tarang erna.

   I want to give a gift to Droma.

Epigraphic Mayan

Alternative forms

• ux
• ⟨𝋣⟩

Numeral

ox

1. three

Lacandon

Numeral

ox

1. three

Mam

Etymology

From Proto-Mayan *ʔoox-ibʼ.

Numeral

ox

1. three

References

• Kaufman, Terrence; Justeson, John (2003), A Preliminary Mayan Etymological Dictionary‎^[2], page 1465: “pM *7oox-ib'”

Middle English

Noun

ox

1. alternative form of oxe

Middle Scots

Alternative forms

• hox, oix, oxe, oxx

Etymology

Inherited from Early Scots ox, from Old English oxa, from Proto-West Germanic *ohsō, from Proto-Germanic *uhsô, from Proto-Indo-European *uksḗn.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɔks/
• IPA^(key): /ɔʊ̯s/ (possibly)

Noun

ox (plural oxin or owsyn)

1. ox (castrated bull)

Descendants

• Scots: ouse (either from Middle Scots *owse or rebuilt on the plural owsyn)

References

• “ox”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.

Spanish

Alternative forms

• os

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic [script needed] (ušš).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈoʃ/ [ˈoʃ], /os/ [os]
• Rhymes: -oʃ, -os
• Syllabification: ox

Interjection

ox

1. shoo

Further reading

• “ox”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Yucatec Maya

Numeral

ox

1. obsolete spelling of óox