taxis

¹ American  

[tak-sis] / ˈtæk sɪs /

noun

plural

taxes

1. arrangement or order, as in one of the physical sciences.

2. Biology. oriented movement of a motile organism in response to an external stimulus, as toward or away from light.

3. Surgery. the replacing of a displaced part, or the reducing of a hernia or the like, by manipulation without cutting.

4. Architecture. the adaptation to the purposes of a building of its various parts.

---

taxis ² American  

[tak-seez] / ˈtæk siz /

noun

1. a plural of taxi.

---

-taxis ³ American  

1. a combining form representing taxis1 in compound words.

   heterotaxis.

---

-taxis ¹ British  

combining form

1. indicating movement towards or away from a specified stimulus

   thermotaxis

2. order or arrangement

   phyllotaxis

---

taxis ² British  

/ ˈtæksɪs /

noun

1. the movement of a cell or organism in a particular direction in response to an external stimulus

2. surgery the repositioning of a displaced organ or part by manual manipulation only

---

Other Word Forms

• -tactic combining form

Etymology

Origin of taxis

1720–30; < New Latin < Greek táxis, equivalent to tak- (base of tássein to arrange, put in order) + -sis -sis

Example Sentences

In December 2025, a large power outage in San Francisco led Waymo taxis to stop working around the city, causing huge traffic jams.

From BBC • Apr. 1, 2026

Like most hotels on the Strip, you have to walk through the casino to reach the rooms, but here rideshares and taxis share the same pickup location, which makes coming and going much easier.

From Salon • Mar. 7, 2026

The Singapore-listed firm operates more than 54,000 vehicles across 13 countries in Asia Pacific and Europe, running buses, taxis, trains and other transport services.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 6, 2026

Musk is competing with Waymo, the Alphabet-owned ride-hailing service that operates fully driverless taxis in 10 cities, as well as Zoox, an Amazon-backed robotaxi effort.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 26, 2026

I had several cousins who drove taxis, and they’d come and take me to town when I wanted.

From "Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice" by Phillip Hoose