O
noun
the fifteenth letter of the English alphabet, a vowel.
Jump To:
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O
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o'
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O'
O'a prefix meaning “descendant,” in Irish family names.
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o-
o-an abridgment of ortho-.
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-o
-oa 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 ).
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o.
o.abbreviationpint.
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-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.
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O.
O.abbreviation(in prescriptions) a pint.
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o
onounthe 15th letter and fourth vowel of the modern English alphabet
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O'-
O'-prefix(in surnames of Irish Gaelic origin) descendant of
O
1 American
[oh]
/ oʊ /
Or
o
noun
O's,
plural
Os,
plural
o's,
plural
os,
plural
oes
plural
-
the fifteenth letter of the English alphabet, a vowel.
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any spoken sound represented by the letter O or o, as in box, note, short, or love .
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something having the shape of an O .
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a written or printed representation of the letter O or o.
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a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter O or o.
O
2
American
[oh]
/ oʊ /
interjection
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(used before a name in direct address, especially in solemn or poetic language, to lend earnestness to an appeal).
Hear, O Israel!
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(used as an expression of surprise, pain, annoyance, longing, gladness, etc.)
noun
O's
plural
O
3
American
O
4
American
Symbol.
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the fifteenth in order or in a series.
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the Arabic cipher; zero.
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(sometimes lowercase) the medieval Roman numeral for 11.
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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.
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Chemistry. oxygen.
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Logic. particular negative.
o'
5
American
[uh, oh]
/ ə, oʊ /
O'
6
American
o-
7
American
Chemistry.
o-
8
American
o-
9
American
-o
10
American
-
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 ).
-
a suffix occurring in colloquial noun or adjective derivatives, usually grammatically isolated, as in address.
cheerio; kiddo; neato; righto.
o.
11
American
abbreviation
o.
12
American
abbreviation
-
octavo.
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off.
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old.
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only.
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order.
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Baseball. out; outs.
-o-
13
American
O.
14
American
abbreviation
O.
15
American
abbreviation
-
Ocean.
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octavo.
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October.
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Ohio.
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Old.
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Ontario.
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Oregon.
O
1
British
symbol
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chem oxygen
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a human blood type of the ABO group See universal donor
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logic a particular negative categorial proposition, such as some men are not married: often symbolized as SoP Compare A E I 2
abbreviation
o
2
British
/ əʊ /
noun
-
the 15th letter and fourth vowel of the modern English alphabet
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any of several speech sounds represented by this letter, in English as in code, pot, cow, move, or form
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another name for nought
O
3
British
/ əʊ /
interjection
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a variant spelling of oh
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an exclamation introducing an invocation, entreaty, wish, etc
O God!
O for the wings of a dove!
O'-
4
British
prefix
-o
5
British
suffix
-o-
6
British
o-
7
British
prefix
o'
8
British
/ ə /
preposition
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:
“We remain loyal to our promise, O Hussein!” they shouted.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 22, 2026
“Coach O understands my expectations and commitment to being a championship program,” Kiffin said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 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
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
O Burr, O Burr, what has thou done?
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
Hobro said they were often mistaken for Portuguese man o' war but were much smaller, "brighter blue" and "generally harmless".
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
I was raised about two blocks from where you lived at the time, near Tail o’ the Pup.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2025
Any way you slice it, this week’s Slate News Quiz is a piece o’ fun.
From Slate ● Nov. 1, 2024
“Particularly? Let me remember, then, what he said as to that. His expression was, ‘a round score o’ year ago, and a’most directly after I took up wi’ Compeyson.’
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
June O' Sullivan, who runs a chain of 42 London Early Years Foundation nurseries, said she was yet to see evidence of AI benefits in early years.
From BBC ● Mar. 12, 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
The soft, long-drawn "o- ohs!" that came to his ears were full of a music that made him impervious to pain.
From Green Fancy by McCutcheon, George Barr
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
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
This gene family was recently named KELT7, and we confirm the 8 copies present in P. o. wallikeri, but show that P. o. curtisi has 9 copies, two of which are pseudogenes.
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
And if he’s going to be a senator, he says, he needs to lock down a Jackie O. – not a Marilyn.
From Salon ● Jul. 6, 2026
On Saturday, we watched Bishop John O. Barres lay hands on Dillon’s head to confer the sacrament of the priesthood on him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 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
Scientists observed that the fungus parasitizes cells of O. cf. ovata and can kill them within a few days.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 6, 2026
One veteran on board was Gilbert de la O. It had been sixteen tough years since he’d returned from Vietnam in 1966, and he wasn’t going to miss the dedication for anything.
From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge
But the legs that underpin the stool of Wall Street’s still-bullish forecasts, in the form of Fed rate cuts, slowing inflation pressures, and a resilient economy, have started o wobble.
From Barron's ● Mar. 19, 2026
Welsh folk singer Dafydd Iwan says he has received "very personal" and "nasty" comments after urging organisers of a right-wing protest to stop using his song Yma o Hyd.
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
Fearing that Hindu-Arabic numerals—the o through 9 used today—would promote confusion and fraud, some European authorities banned them until the fourteenth century.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
In contrast, the unsatisfactory attempts at chemical control in earlier years had cost about £, 1 o per acre.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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
Both senior managers were subsequently disciplined by Google for witnessing Mr O's conduct and failing to intervene, before later being made redundant.
From BBC ● Mar. 10, 2026
Other times, for the players who preferred to see plays spelled out with Xs and O’s, he’d diagram it on paper.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2025
There has been another explanation for Baby O's death.
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 achieved an international breakthrough with her visual album, 2022’s “K23.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2026
Os would soon tour the U.S. for the first time, and at the 2023 Latin Grammy Awards, “K23” was nominated in the category of long form music video.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2026
Os has even accompanied Pluma on a few stops of his recent Dinastía Tour.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2026
Black and red letters and crazy eyes inside the Os.
From "Brown Girl Dreaming" by Jacqueline Woodson
Like other Romance languages, Spanish divides most endings of nouns into masculine o’s or feminine a’s.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 12, 2021
Twitter’s closed captioning wrote it out twice, with each ¡Gol! featuring 27 o’s.
From Slate ● Jun. 17, 2018
Plosives, or stops, convey “slower” and “bigger” — as do vowels that are voiced at the back of the throat, like the o in “token” or the double o’s in “food.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 15, 2015
Texting and Millennials The phone holds a million x’s and o’s.
From Forbes ● Jun. 5, 2013
It was almost perfect, just a fraction flatter and shakier than Betty Jean’s voice had been, the o’s and ah’s parodies of Betty Jean’s pretentious ones.
From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
Dreyfus pleased his friends no better than his :oes: he irked them by not becoming a "Dreyfusard."
From Time Magazine Archive
Dreig Arfon arfod wythlonedd Dragon diheufeirch heirddfeirch harddedd, Ni chaiff Sais i drais y droedfedd oi fro, Nid oes o Gymro i Gymrodedd.
From Some Specimens of the Poetry of the Ancient Welsh Bards by Evans, Evan
However thick-skinned a man may be, and protected over all by the oes triplex of self-sufficiency, he cannot escape being wounded by furious and incessant attacks.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 21, July, 1859 by Various
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
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
In the 19 3 os, track experts were beginning to toss around the idea of a four-minute mile.
From "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand
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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
