ex
noun · adjective · verb
Simple meaning
A former partner or spouse.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehksIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɛks
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
colloquial
A former partner or spouse; an ex-girlfriend, ex-boyfriend, ex-wife, or ex-husband.
The name of the Latin-script letter X/x.
Alternative letter-case form of ex.
canada
An instance of exhibiting, or something exhibited.
adjective
Ex-, former, previously but no longer.
singaporecolloquial
Expensive, dear
verb
To delete; to cross out.
slang
To extinguish the life of.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A former partner or spouse; an ex-girlfriend, ex-boyfriend, ex-wife, or ex-husband.
Used this way, ex is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in relationships and everyday conversation contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Casual
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Playful
- Usage feel
- Casual and conversational
Where it naturally appears
- Relationships
- Everyday conversation
- Social media/informal writing
Nearby words
- exwife , much rarer in everyday speech
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use ex
- “All his exes live in Texas.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: former partner or spouse
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.