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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:

God bless them for charming the good people of Boston and Miami and earning a full page feature in Wednesday's O Globo, Brazil's best-selling newspaper.

From BBC Jun. 25, 2026

“Our soul is in your hands, O Hussein!”

From Los Angeles Times Jun. 22, 2026

“Arise, O protector of the homeland!” the crowd responded.

From Los Angeles Times Jun. 22, 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

So first we’d give Omi a birthday hug inside the O, and then we’d give her a little red pouch of chocolate pebbles—basically M&M’s, but each one a different pebbly shape and color.

From "Maybe He Just Likes You" by Barbara Dee

“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

Amelie McCann said Julia Wandelt had told her she had memories of playing Ring a Ring o' Roses with her and feeding her brother Sean.

From BBC Oct. 9, 2025

These sea snails are also voracious predators themselves and feast upon free-floating hydrozoan such as Velella velella and Portuguese man o’ war.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 23, 2025

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

From Slate Nov. 1, 2024

“She’ll happen do better for him nor ony o’ t’ grand ladies.”

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

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

From MarketWatch Nov. 19, 2025

The castle, near John O' Groats, is the most northerly inhabited castle in Scotland and the property and its gardens are run as a visitor attraction in summer months.

From BBC Oct. 27, 2025

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

From Salon Jul. 7, 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

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

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

Similarly, condensation of different samples of crude cresol containing varying quantities of o-, m-, and p-cresol did not yield end-products sufficiently different to justify describing them in detail.

From Synthetic Tannins by Grasser, Georg

The text of the larger o- fuda is often accompanied by curious pictures or symbolic illustrations.

From In Ghostly Japan by Hearn, Lafcadio

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

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

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

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 P. o. wallikeri and the P. o. curtisi chromosomes were aligned against each other, as were the P. malariae and P. malariae-like chromosomes.

From Nature Jan. 24, 2017

Gene models were then manually curated for both the P. malariae and P. o. curtisi reference genomes, using Artemis40 and the Artemis Comparison Tool41.

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

“Yes o. Are you the person that will marry me? Meanwhile I told Don I am going out with you, so make sure you don’t go anywhere that he might go.”

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

Mr. Yagoda is the author of the novel “Alias O. Henry.”

From The Wall Street Journal Apr. 17, 2026

Crump said Thursday he was teaming up with Carl Douglas, a civil rights attorney known for representing O. J. Simpson during his 1995 murder trial, to explore a lawsuit against the county.

From Los Angeles Times Mar. 14, 2026

On this week’s show, Dahlia Lithwick interviews constitutional and immigration scholar Anna O. Law about her forthcoming book, Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship.

From Slate Mar. 14, 2026

Back home, the O. J. Simpson trial was in full swing, and there were people who surrendered their entire lunch hours watching it, then taped the rest so they could watch more at night.

From "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom

My eyes watered as the camera panned over his arm-in-arm players as they shouted the line, “Think, o beloved homeland! That heaven/gave you a soldier in each son.”

From Los Angeles Times Jun. 25, 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

Marvell and SoftBank didn’t immediately respond t o Barron’s requests for comment early on Thursday.

From Barron's Nov. 6, 2025

It’s her own medal of Saint Christopher—protector o travelers, guardian against storms, holy death, and toothaches.

From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti

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

Which raises the obvious question - if the prosecution were wrong about Baby O's liver injuries, then why did he die?

From BBC Aug. 11, 2025

There has been another explanation for Baby O's death.

From BBC Aug. 11, 2025

But before he spoke he picked up a piece of yellow chalk and drew five X’s and O’s up on the board.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy

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

From BBC May 15, 2026

When Os first launched as a singer in 2018, some immediately took aim at her dance moves and the digitally augmented sound of her voice.

From Los Angeles Times Mar. 20, 2026

Another hurdle that Os had to overcome in her career is an ongoing stigma placed on influencers-turned-pop stars.

From Los Angeles Times Mar. 20, 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

“Brother, that water felt good,” she said, drawing out the word “good” so it sounded like it had about fifteen Os in it.

From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls

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

“Because, see, we’re in Spanish class with all the a's and o’s at the end, and Troy just comes up with this name, Ema, just like that, and boom, it stuck. You see?”

From "Shelter (Book One): A Mickey Bolitar Novel" by Harlan Coben

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

From Time Magazine Archive

I was taking a lesson in Welsh pronunciation some time ago, and uttered the phrase "yn oes oesodd"—from ages to ages.

From Far Off Things by Machen, Arthur

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

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

Nad oes wedd na moes, masw ynyd yw’n gwlad, Nad oes mad eithr gwad a gwyd.

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

In the 19 3 os, track experts were beginning to toss around the idea of a four-minute mile.

From "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand

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