ox
1 Americannoun
plural
oxen, oxes-
the adult castrated male of the genus Bos, used chiefly as a draft animal.
-
any member of the bovine family.
-
Informal. a clumsy, stupid fellow.
abbreviation
noun
-
an adult castrated male of any domesticated species of cattle, esp Bos taurus, used for draught work and meat
-
any bovine mammal, esp any of the domestic cattle
Usage
Plural word for ox The plural form of ox is oxen. This is one of the few remaining irregular nouns whose plural derives directly from its original pluralization in Old English. A similar change is made when pluralizing woman (women), man (men), and child (children). In some rare instances, ox is pluralized in the more conventional fashion as oxes, but this form is often considered incorrect and should be avoided.
Other Word Forms
- oxlike adjective
Etymology
Origin of ox1
First recorded before 900; Middle English oxe, Old English oxa; cognate with Old Frisian oxa, Old Saxon, Old High German ohso, Old Norse uxi, oxi; akin to Welsh ych
Origin of ox-2
Short for oxygen
Origin of Ox.3
From the Medieval Latin word Oxonia
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.
"This time of year there is not much to hunt. So we rely on musk ox meat and skin," Kleist says.
From Barron's • Feb. 10, 2026
One of Giovanni's most notable miracles involved healing an ox with a broken leg.
From Science Daily • Feb. 2, 2026
They don’t really care about “the reasons” or how others were experiencing America, whose ox the past few decades was being gored.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 15, 2026
There has been some success with the Australian government's crown-of-thorns starfish culling programme, which has killed over 50,000 starfish by injecting them with vinegar or ox bile.
From BBC • Aug. 5, 2025
It meant that the musk ox was stunned and speechless . . . for a few seconds anyway, until he found his voice again.
From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el
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.
