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  • O
    O
    noun
    the fifteenth letter of the English alphabet, a vowel.
  • o'
    o'
    preposition
    a shortened form of of, as in o'clock or will-o'-the-wisp.
  • O'
    O'
    a prefix meaning “descendant,” in Irish family names.
  • o-
    o-
    an abridgment of ortho-.
  • -o
    -o
    a suffix occurring as the final element in informal shortenings of nouns (ammo; combo; condo; limo; promo ); -o also forms nouns, usually derogatory, for persons or things exemplifying or associated with that specified by the base noun or adjective (cheapo; pinko; sicko; weirdo; wino ).
  • o.
    o.
    abbreviation
    pint.
  • -o-
    -o-
    the typical ending of the first element of compounds of Greek origin (as -i- is, in compounds of Latin origin), used regularly in forming new compounds with elements of Greek origin and often used in English as a connective irrespective of etymology.
  • O.
    O.
    abbreviation
    (in prescriptions) a pint.
  • o
    o
    noun
    the 15th letter and fourth vowel of the modern English alphabet
  • O'-
    O'-
    prefix
    (in surnames of Irish Gaelic origin) descendant of
Synonyms

O

1 American  
[oh] / oʊ /
Or o

noun

O's, plural Os, plural o's, plural os, plural oes plural
  1. the fifteenth letter of the English alphabet, a vowel.

  2. any spoken sound represented by the letter O or o, as in box, note, short, or love .

  3. something having the shape of an O .

  4. a written or printed representation of the letter O or o.

  5. a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter O or o.


O 2 American  
[oh] / oʊ /

interjection

  1. (used before a name in direct address, especially in solemn or poetic language, to lend earnestness to an appeal).

    Hear, O Israel!

  2. (used as an expression of surprise, pain, annoyance, longing, gladness, etc.)


noun

O's plural
  1. the exclamation “O.”

O 3 American  

abbreviation

  1. Grammar. object.

  2. Old.


O 4 American  
Symbol.
  1. the fifteenth in order or in a series.

  2. the Arabic cipher; zero.

  3. (sometimes lowercase) the medieval Roman numeral for 11.

  4. Physiology. a major blood group, usually enabling a person whose blood is of this type to donate blood to persons of group O, A, B, or AB and to receive blood from persons of group O.

  5. Chemistry. oxygen.

  6. Logic. particular negative.


o' 5 American  
[uh, oh] / ə, oʊ /

preposition

  1. a shortened form of of, as in o'clock or will-o'-the-wisp.

  2. Chiefly Dialect. a shortened form of on.


O' 6 American  
  1. a prefix meaning “descendant,” in Irish family names.

    O'Brien; O'Connor.


o- 7 American  
Chemistry.
  1. an abridgment of ortho-.


o- 8 American  
  1. variant of ob- before m:

    omission.


o- 9 American  
  1. variant of oo-.

    oidium.


-o 10 American  
  1. a suffix occurring as the final element in informal shortenings of nouns (ammo; combo; condo; limo; promo ); -o also forms nouns, usually derogatory, for persons or things exemplifying or associated with that specified by the base noun or adjective (cheapo; pinko; sicko; weirdo; wino ).

  2. a suffix occurring in colloquial noun or adjective derivatives, usually grammatically isolated, as in address.

    cheerio; kiddo; neato; righto.


o. 11 American  

abbreviation

  1. pint.


o. 12 American  

abbreviation

  1. octavo.

  2. off.

  3. old.

  4. only.

  5. order.

  6. Baseball. out; outs.


-o- 13 American  
  1. the typical ending of the first element of compounds of Greek origin (as -i- is, in compounds of Latin origin), used regularly in forming new compounds with elements of Greek origin and often used in English as a connective irrespective of etymology.

    Franco-Italian; geography; seriocomic; speedometer.


O. 14 American  

abbreviation

  1. (in prescriptions) a pint.


O. 15 American  

abbreviation

  1. Ocean.

  2. octavo.

  3. October.

  4. Ohio.

  5. Old.

  6. Ontario.

  7. Oregon.


O 1 British  

symbol

  1. chem oxygen

  2. a human blood type of the ABO group See universal donor

  3. logic a particular negative categorial proposition, such as some men are not married: often symbolized as SoP Compare A E I 2

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

abbreviation

  1. slang offence

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
o 2 British  
/ əʊ /

noun

  1. the 15th letter and fourth vowel of the modern English alphabet

  2. any of several speech sounds represented by this letter, in English as in code, pot, cow, move, or form

  3. another name for nought

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

O 3 British  
/ əʊ /

interjection

  1. a variant spelling of oh

  2. an exclamation introducing an invocation, entreaty, wish, etc

    O God!

    O for the wings of a dove!

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

O'- 4 British  

prefix

  1. (in surnames of Irish Gaelic origin) descendant of

    O'Corrigan

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

-o 5 British  

suffix

  1. forming informal and slang variants and abbreviations, esp of nouns

    wino

    lie doggo

    Jacko

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

-o- 6 British  
  1. used to connect elements in a compound word Compare -i-

    chromosome

    filmography

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

o- 7 British  

prefix

  1. short for ortho-

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

o' 8 British  
/ ə /

preposition

  1. informal shortened form of of

    a cup o' tea

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of O2

First recorded in 1125–75; Middle English, from Old French, from Latin ō

Origin of o'5

From Middle English; by shortening

Origin of O'6

Representing Irish ó descendant, Old Irish au

Origin of -o10

Perhaps originally the interjection O, appended to words as in -o def. 2; as a derivational suffix reinforced by clipped forms of words with -o- as a linking element (e.g., photo, stereo ), by Rom nouns ending in o, and by personal nouns such as bimbo and bozo, of obscure origin

Origin of o.11

From the Latin word octārius

Origin of -o-13

Middle English (< Old French ) < Latin < Greek

Origin of O.14

From the Latin word octārius

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Among those scheduled to perform are Beck, Jenny Lewis, Karen O, Rufus Wainwright and Devo, among many more.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 8, 2026

“Coach O understands my expectations and commitment to being a championship program,” Kiffin said.

From Los Angeles Times May 21, 2026

Cuba has completely run out of diesel and fuel oil, the country's energy minister Vicente de la O Levy has said.

From BBC May 14, 2026

Since January, only one shipment of Russian crude has reached Cuban ports, and the fuel refined from it has already been used, De la O said.

From The Wall Street Journal May 14, 2026

O, let my books be then the eloquence and dumb presages of my speaking breast!’”

From "Shine!" by J.J. and Chris Grabenstein

Similar to Portuguese man o' war, by-the-wind sailors are colonies of animals related to sea anemones and corals, and they possess stinging cells.

From BBC Jun. 18, 2026

“Coffee badging”—going to the office just long enough to show your face and grab a cup o’ joe—was a popular workaround.

From The Wall Street Journal Dec. 30, 2025

Any way you slice it, this week’s Slate News Quiz is a piece o’ fun.

From Slate Nov. 1, 2024

And a horse named Upset handed the immortal Man o’ War his only loss in 22 races, earning the country’s oldest racetrack its nickname: the Graveyard of Champions.

From New York Times Jun. 7, 2024

“He’ll be glad o’ sensible company, he will, alone in that castle with them young rascals from Glasgow.”

From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein

Visitor access to nearby Man O' War beach remains open.

From BBC Feb. 24, 2026

Former basketball player Shaquille O’ Neal is also a high-profile investor.

From MarketWatch Nov. 19, 2025

But Heart O’ the Hills confirmed that its camp director, Jane Ragsdale, is one of the flood’s victims .

From Salon Jul. 7, 2025

Girls summer camp Heart O’ the Hills is just a mile north of Camp Mystic.

From Salon Jul. 7, 2025

After a single trip to the supermarket, the refrigerator and the cupboards fill with familiar labels: Skippy, Hood, Bumble Bee, Land O’ Lakes.

From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri

At week's end a Russian delegation got the signatures of the leaders of Kazakhstan on a similar agreement-to-try-t o- agree.

From Time Magazine Archive

Phenol-2,4-disulphonic acid is prepared from o- or p-phenolsulphonic acid, whereas phenol-2,4,6-trisulphonic acid is prepared directly from phenol by heating with concentrated sulphuric acid in presence of phosphorus pentoxide.

From Synthetic Tannins by Grasser, Georg

They all stare at one another, and so go off, crying O, o, o, o- to the Emperor's Pallace.

From The Life and Death of Doctor Faustus Made into a Farce by Mountfort, William

Toluene treated with fuming sulphuric acid first yields o- and p-sulphonic acids, finally o- and p-disulphonic acids, ethylbenzene at the boiling point p-ethylbenzene-sulphonic acid.

From Synthetic Tannins by Grasser, Georg

Of the three isomeric xylenes o- and m-xylene dissolve in concentrated, p-xylene in fuming sulphuric acid only.

From Synthetic Tannins by Grasser, Georg

I don't think the "-e" should eliminate the existing "-o" and the "-a."

From Salon Sep. 26, 2022

Usually words ending in "-o" are masculine and those ending in "-a" are feminine, but there are many common words that break those gender rules, like "la mano," the word for "hand."

From Salon Sep. 26, 2022

Knocko, Peddlo, Henpecko, and the rest became so popular that the -o suffix soon spread to words up and down the English language.

From Slate Mar. 31, 2020

The -o suffix traces back to old comic strip characters with names like Knocko and Groucho.

From Slate Mar. 31, 2020

I knew perfectly well why, but I didn’t know how -o put it.

From "Boy: Tales of a Childhood" by Roald Dahl

The Illumina-based genome assemblies for P. o. curtisi, P. o. wallikeri, and P. malariae-like were performed using MaSURCA30 for samples PocGH01, PowCR01, and PmlGA01 respectively.

From Nature Jan. 24, 2017

Collated tables for all molecular evolution measures for all genes can be found in Source Data File 1 for P. malariae and P. o. curtisi.

From Nature Jan. 24, 2017

Reality is that you are giving up your family time by doing the o. t. when they need you at work. 

From Time May 3, 2013

“If you dey come give am ticket to leave this here country, I will disappear o. I will not even stop home for pick my bag.”

From Washington Post

“Haba! I don’t text and drive o. I text when I’m not driving,” she said.

From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Thus masc. -o- stems show palatal modification, e.g. corn, “horn,” plur. cyrn < *kornī; the plural ending of -u- stems, O. Gaulish -oves, gives O.W. -ou, Mid.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 5 "Cat" to "Celt" by Various

The one here involves the eight pits that were unearthed 40 years ago by workers in Sanxingdui in southern China “at the foot of the Tibetan mountains,” as narrator Jay O. Sanders tells us.

From The Wall Street Journal May 26, 2026

“It is not the trial of O. J. Simpson, the man accused of murdering my son and Nicole.”

From Los Angeles Times May 19, 2026

News of diGenova’s appointment comes on the heels of a prosecutor withdrawing from the case, apparently due to doubts she had about prosecuting former CIA director John O. Brennan.

From Salon Apr. 21, 2026

In the most recent episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick sat down with immigration and constitutional scholar Anna O. Law about her forthcoming book Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship.

From Slate Mar. 19, 2026

Men and boys who were already in the fields irrigating looked up, laughing, and the women of Milagro watched O. J. come and go from their front doorsteps or parlor windows.

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols

"The lack of justice has sparked this wave of protests," Abu Ahmed Faijul Kabir of the legal rights group Ain o Salish Kendra told AFP.

From Barron's May 22, 2026

Similarly, in June 2023, Iwan, called on protesters to stop using Yma o Hyd in opposition to housing asylum seekers at the Stradey Park Hotel in Carmarthenshire.

From BBC Feb. 1, 2026

Mr. Brownlee’s tenor proved rock-solid in Arturo’s demanding music, from his exquisitely relaxed, almost languid opening aria, “A te, o cara,” to some punishing high Fs.

From The Wall Street Journal Jan. 2, 2026

When I tried explaining it to Bright, he said, “Ei, you’re brave o, Sena!”

From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo

Bunny’s mouth fell open in a little round o.

From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

While some winning coaches were making their names with toughness that bordered on abuse, he urged Close to see her teams as human beings first, not X’s and O’s.

From The Wall Street Journal Apr. 6, 2026

Does the olfactory exhilaration also enhance play-calling, amplifying one’s grasp of X’s and O’s?

From Los Angeles Times Jan. 12, 2026

Since that press conference, other experts working for Letby's defence team have put forward another theory for Baby O's death.

From BBC Aug. 11, 2025

However, a paediatric pathologist who was not involved in the case but has seen Baby O's post-mortem report, says it was "unlikely" Baby O's liver injuries were caused by impact - as the prosecution claims.

From BBC Aug. 11, 2025

The babies’ lips pursed into two round O’s.

From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood

"The Dutch experience in my opinion offers a warning for Canada," Os cautioned.

From BBC May 15, 2026

Os, born Kenia Guadalupe Flores Osuna in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, has made an incredible leap from social media influencer to Latin Grammy-nominated pop star in under a decade.

From Los Angeles Times Mar. 20, 2026

Os achieved an international breakthrough with her visual album, 2022’s “K23.”

From Los Angeles Times Mar. 20, 2026

Os reveals that she and Morrison worked on a third song that they’re still putting the finishing touches on.

From Los Angeles Times Mar. 20, 2026

Some Os and Qs and Cs long and narrow.

From "One Crazy Summer" by Rita Williams-Garcia

Like other Romance languages, Spanish divides most endings of nouns into masculine o’s or feminine a’s.

From Washington Times Dec. 12, 2021

Texting and Millennials The phone holds a million x’s and o’s.

From Forbes Jun. 5, 2013

The promotion is “a really great fit with an Americana brand,” Mr. Addicks said, particularly because “Cheerios have always been about nurturing; they’re the little o’s that go with you through life.”

From New York Times Nov. 9, 2011

A young executive named Mark Shapiro, now gone, pushed it as a way to broaden the network's appeal beyond "the hard x's and o's crowd."

From Slate Jun. 1, 2011

The Cranes Conquer America was written at the top in Emily’s eight-year-old scrawl, back when she was into putting smiley faces inside her e’s, o’s, and o’s.

From "Book Scavenger" by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman

Dreyfus pleased his friends no better than his :oes: he irked them by not becoming a "Dreyfusard."

From Time Magazine Archive

Cymmrodedd fy llyw lluoedd beri, Nid oes rwyf eirioes, aer dyfysgu, Cymro yw haelryw o hil Beli hir,    Yn herwydd i brofi.

From Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Ancient Welsh Bards by Evans, Evan

The poet "mouthing out his hollow oes and aes" is, we are told, a good description of Tennyson's tone and manner of reading.

From The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson by Collins, John Churton

Ir wyfi yn meddwl nad oes neb a ryfygei gymmeryd y fath orchest arno. 

From Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Ancient Welsh Bards by Evans, Evan

A new Longevity Preparedness Index from John Hancock and MIT AgeLab os based on a survey of over 1,300 adults and focused on eight areas such as finance, home, health and community.

From MarketWatch Dec. 12, 2025

She first broke through with 2016’s “Remonta,” an album she recorded with her former band Liniker e os Caramelows.

From Los Angeles Times Oct. 8, 2025

The os in his calculations were only intermediaries, crutches that vanished miraculously by the end of the computation.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

Newton disliked infinitesimals, the little os in his fluxion equations that sometimes acted like zeros and sometimes like nonzero numbers.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

You could talk to him about os and argos, suet and grease, croteys, fewmets and fiants, but he only looked polite.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

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