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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:

A delicious word salad: How many words can you create with the letters Y, B, O, F, U, and N?

From Slate Aug. 18, 2026

It also gives non-Asian chorus members a reason to be present at Butterfly’s wedding, though having a group of American ladies sing the invocation “O Kami! O Kami!” from song sheets seemed peculiar.

From The Wall Street Journal Aug. 17, 2026

The exhibition "Hkeeli ya Jnoub", or "Tell me, O South", features pictures and videos preserving the memory of southern Lebanon at the capital's Beit Beirut museum.

From Barron's Jul. 19, 2026

“And at the end of the three years I was on ‘Sanford and Son,’ ‘The Waltons’ and ‘Harry O.’

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 16, 2026

The O was my idea: her actual name was Naomi-Jacinta Duarte Chavez, but we called her Omi for short.

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

“Fire's the sun, unwindin' itself out o' the wood.”

From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell

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

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

And trewelie, if there be any // and in no o- good in them, it is either lerned, borowed, or // ther tong. stolne, from some one of those worthie wittes of Athens.

From The Schoolmaster by Roger Ascham

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 Georg Grasser

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 George Barr McCutcheon

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

From Synthetic Tannins by Georg Grasser

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

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

From Slate Mar. 31, 2020

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

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

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

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

Using a new reference genome for P. malariae and a manually curated draft P. o. curtisi genome, we are now able to accurately place these species within the Plasmodium phylogeny.

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

Then she added, “Sorry o. I did not mean that your boyfriend is a criminal. I was just asking.”

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

Thankfully, Curry did not allow any eerie rumors to deter him from securing the home, which was originally built in 1922, having been designed by acclaimed architect Stiles O. Clements.

From MarketWatch Aug. 31, 2026

In “Journey to the Ants,” Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson unveil these astonishing “microwildernesses” as part of their long investigations into ants’ social lives.

From The Wall Street Journal Aug. 3, 2026

The Senate opened debate this week on the late South Carolina senator’s legacy legislation—the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act—by an overwhelming 86–12 vote.

From Slate Aug. 1, 2026

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

Even had his dad up at the school, complaining to Coach O. The answer they got was the same as it had always been in the wrestling room: work harder and win.

From "We'll Fly Away" by Bryan Bliss

The victory meant Maguire improved her career Solheim Cup record to nine wins, three defeats and one halved match, to give her the highest winning percentage o any European player that has played five matches.

From BBC Sep. 11, 2026

Allow me to sing, o Muse, of a recent dinner conversation about “The Odyssey.”

From Salon Aug. 2, 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

One million helices stacked side by side would fit in this letter: o.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

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

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

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 X’s and O’s won’t matter if Ayton doesn’t show up to play every night, however.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 3, 2025

There were many X’s and O’s at the end of it.

From "Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two" by Joseph Bruchac

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

From BBC May 15, 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

“I want to grow more internationally with this album,” says Os.

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

The following is a computer printout of a random sequence of Xs and Os, each with probability V2.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos

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

From Washington Times Dec. 12, 2021

Speaking in the same New Orleans twang as her students—those bouncy o’s and long, lingering a’s—Foster was teaching her fifth-graders about chemical reactions.

From Slate Jun. 5, 2016

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

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 Evan Evans

Dywedir mai enw y gwas oedd Dafydd Hiraddug, ac iddo werthu ei hun i’r diafol, ac oherwydd hyny, ei fod yn alluog i gyflawni gweithredoedd anhygoel yn yr oes hon. 

From Welsh Folk-Lore a Collection of the Folk-Tales and Legends of North Wales by Elias Owen

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 Evan Evans

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 Evan Evans

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

Ambos os programas são “fundamentais para entender a expansão agrícola no Brasil e as emissões de carbono do desmatamento na Amazônia,” diz Douglas Morton, especialista em sensoriamento remoto do Goddard Space Flight Center da NASA.

From Science Magazine May 26, 2022

Hours later, Kelly posts bail and os released from jail in Chicago.

From Seattle Times Aug. 18, 2021

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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