ax

See also: Appendix:Variations of "ax"

English

An ax

Pronunciation

• enPR: ăks, IPA^(key): /æks/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æks

Etymology 1

Noun

ax (plural axes)

1. US standard spelling of axe.

Derived terms

• axhandle
• axhead
• axless
• axlike
• axman
• axstone
• axwoman
• break-ax
• give the ax

Verb

ax (third-person singular simple present axes, present participle axing, simple past and past participle axed)

1. US standard spelling of axe.

Etymology 2

From Middle English axen, aksen, axien, from Old English ācsian and āxian, showing metathesis from āscian. Ax/aks was common in literary works until about 1600.

Verb

ax (third-person singular simple present axes, present participle axing, simple past and past participle axed)

1. (now nonstandard or dialectal, especially African-American Vernacular, MLE and Bermuda) Alternative form of ask.
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts:

     When they were come togedder, they axed off hym, sayinge: Master wilt thou at this tyme restore agayne the kyngdom of israhel?

   • 1836, Joanna Baillie, The Alienated Manor, act 4:

     Dolly: And if so be, why did you ax me to keep you company? Housekeeper wants me below to pick raisins.

   • 1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 517:

     "Thin the masther called out Dinny Moran, an' dhragged him up to one o' the Dublin young ladies, an' bid Dinny be stout an' ax her out to dance wid him."

   • 1879, William Barnes, “The Welshnut Tree”, in Complete Poems, volume 1, page 106:

     Ar try who'l ax em the hardest riddle,
     Ar soonest vind out oone put us, true...

   • 1887, Gilbert and Sullivan, Ruddigore, act 1:

     Richard Dauntless: "But, axin' your pardon, miss, might I be permitted to salute the flag I'm a-goin' to sail under?"

   • 1979, Verna Mae Slone, What My Heart Wants to Tell, page 18:

     ‘I axed him if he knowed the way and he said he had not fergitten the lay of the land.’

   • 2006 Sept. 17, David Mills, "Soft Eyes", The Wire, 00:19:01:

     Wise: Your boy left here a while ago
     Johnson: I ain' lookin' for him. He at his granmother's. I wanted to ax you somethin'.

   • 2013 September 5, James Burton, The Bermuda Sun‎^[1], archived from the original on 12 December 2022:

     He's cool. Does triathlons dahn de Sahn. Don't drink. Ax me if I want a lift to de beach — he hurd it's a dahnce goin on dahn thurr.

Usage notes

• This and related forms of ask have been used since Old English and were long employed in literature and prestige dialects. Chaucer used ask, ax, and axe interchangeably. They remain in use in some rural areas of Britain and Appalachia but are now regarded as nonstandard and are primarily associated with AAVE dialects in the US and MLE or West Country dialects in the UK, as well as being in some Irish English dialects, and sometimes in New Zealand, especially among Maori English speakers.

References

• McWhorter, John. "The 'Ax' versus 'Ask' Question", LA Times, 19 Jan. 2014.

Antigua and Barbuda Creole English

Etymology

From English ask.

Verb

ax (past min ax, future go ax, completive dun ax, imperfective a ax)

1. ask

Eastern Huasteca Nahuatl

Adverb

ax

1. not

Icelandic

Etymology

From Old Norse ax.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈaks]

Noun

ax n (genitive singular ax, nominative plural öx)

1. ear (of corn)

Declension

Declension of ax (neuter)

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	ax	axið	öx	öxin
accusative	ax	axið	öx	öxin
dative	axi	axinu	öxum	öxunum
genitive	ax	axins	axa	axanna

Jamaican Creole

Verb

ax

1. alternative spelling of aks
   • 2006, Amina Blackwood-Meeks, “Aiming at your dreams”, in The Jamaica Gleaner‎^[2] (in Jamaican Creole):

     “Well she sey one a de man dem come right up to har car window an show har fe him sign wid him finga, order har outa de plaza like sey it was him personal yaad an ax har if she tink sey chu hooman a go tun Prime Minista she can jus come park which part she have a mind. […] ”

     So she said one of the men walked right up to her car window and pointed at his sign with his finger and ordered her to leave the plaza as if it were his own home. He asked her if she thought that the fact that a woman was going to become Prime Minister that she could just park anywhere she wanted to. […]

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English æx, æcs, from Proto-West Germanic *akusi.

Alternative forms

• axe, ex, exe

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aks/
• Rhymes: -aks

Noun

ax (plural axes)

2. An axe (tool)
3. An axe (weapon)

Descendants

• English: axe, ax
• Scots: aix

References

• “ax(e, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 24 April 2018.

Etymology 2

From Old English eax, from Proto-Germanic *ahsu.

Alternative forms

• ȝex

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aks/
• Rhymes: -aks

Noun

ax (plural axes)

2. (rare) An axle, axletree, pole

Derived terms

• extre

References

• “ax(e, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 24 April 2018.

Northern Kurdish

Etymology

Akin to Persian خاک (xâk, “earth, soil, dust”). From Proto-Iranian *HáHhah, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eHs- (“to be dry”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑːx/

Noun

ax f (Arabic spelling ئاخ)

1. dirt, ground, soil, earth

   Synonyms: erd, xwelî

2. dust

   Synonym: xubar

3. matter

Declension

Declension of ax

definite feminine gender
case	singular	plural
nominative	ax	ax
construct	axa	axên
oblique	axê	axan
demonstrative oblique	wê axê	wan axan
vocative	axê	axino
indefinite feminine gender
case	singular	plural
nominative	axek	axin
construct	axeke	axine
oblique	axekê	axinan

Derived terms

• binax

References

• Chyet, Michael L. (2003), “ax”, in Kurdish–English Dictionary‎^[3], with selected etymologies by Martin Schwartz, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, page 14

Old French

Contraction

ax

1. Contraction of a + les (to the)

Old Norse

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *ahsą, from *ahaz (“ear (of grain)”).

Noun

ax n (genitive ax, plural ǫx)

1. ear (of corn)

Declension

Declension of ax (strong a-stem)

neuter	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	ax	axit	ǫx	ǫxin
accusative	ax	axit	ǫx	ǫxin
dative	axi	axinu	ǫxum	ǫxunum
genitive	ax	axins	axa	axanna

Descendants

• Icelandic: ax
• Norwegian Nynorsk: aks
• Norwegian Bokmål: aks
• Old Swedish: ax
  • Swedish: ax
• Danish: aks

Further reading

Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), “ax”, in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press; also available at the Internet Archive

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French axe, from Latin axis. Doublet of axă and osie.

Noun

ax n (plural axe)

1. axle
2. axis

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	ax	axul	axe	axele
genitive-dative	ax	axului	axe	axelor
vocative	axule		axelor

Salar

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Turkic *āk.

Pronunciation

• (Xunhua, Hualong, Qinghai; Gansu; Ili, Xinjiang) IPA^(key): /ɑχ/

Noun

ax (3rd person possessive axı, plural axlar)

1. white

Derived terms

• axvaş
• axdal
• yumutta axı
• ağarğusı

References

• Potanin, G.N. (1893), “ax”, in Тангутско-Тибетская окраина Китая и Центральная Монголия [Tangutsko-Tibetskaja okraina Kitaja i Centralʹnaja Mongolija] (in Russian), page 430
• Poyarkov, Alexei; Ladygin, Vasiliy (1893), “Салары. Этнографический очерк [Salary. Etnografičeskij očerk, The Salars: An Ethnographic Sketch]”, in Этнографическое ОбозрѢніе: Императорскаго Общества Любителей Естествознанія, Антропологіи и Этнографіи [Etnografičeskoje ObozrĚnije: Imperatorskago Obščestva Ljubitelej Jestestvoznanija, Antropologii i Etnografii, Ethnographical Review: Imperial Society of Lovers of Natural History, Anthropology and Ethnography]‎^[4] (in Russian), Moscow: Publication of the Ethnographic Department, page 33
• Rockhill, William Woodville (1894), Diary of a journey through Mongolia and Tibet in 1891 and 1892, Washington: Smithsonian Institution, page 373
• Poppe, Nicholas (1953), “Remarks on The Salar Language”, in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, volume 16, number 3/4, →DOI, pages 438–477
• Kakuk, S. (1962), “ax”, in “Un vocabulaire Salar”, in Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae‎^[5], volume 14, number 2, Akadémiai Kiadó, →ISBN, pages 173-196
• Tenishev, Edhem (1976), “ax”, in Stroj salárskovo jazyká [Grammar of Salar], Moscow: Nauka, page 298
• 林莲云 [Lin Lianyun] (1985), “ax”, in 撒拉语简志 [A Brief History of Salar]‎^[6], Beijing: 民族出版社: 琴書店, →OCLC, page 44
• 林莲云 [Lin Lianyun] (1992), “ax”, in 撒拉汉汉撒拉词汇 [Salar-Chinese, Chinese-Salar Vocabulary], 成都 [Chéngdū]: 四川民族出版社, →ISBN, page 14
• Yakup, Abdurishid (2002), “ax”, in An Ili Salar Vocabulary: Introduction and a Provisional Salar-English Lexicon‎^[7], Tokyo: University of Tokyo, →ISBN, pages 34-36
• Dwyer, Arienne M. (2007), “ax”, in Salar: A Study in Inner Asian Language Contact Processes: Part I: Phonology‎^[8], 1st edition, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISBN, page 156
• 阿伊草·张进锋 [Salar: Ayso Cañ Cinfen] (2008), 乌璐别格 [Salar: Ulubeğ], 鄭初陽 [Salar: Çuyañ Yebey oğlı Ceñ], editors, 撒拉尔谚语 [Salar: Salar İbret Sözler, Salar Proverbs]‎^[9], China Salar Youth League, page 95
• Ma, Chengjun; Han, Lianye; Ma, Weisheng (December 2010), “ax”, in 米娜瓦尔·艾比布拉 [Minavar Abibra], editor, 撒维汉词典 [Sā-Wéi-Hàn cídiǎn, Salar-Uyghur-Chinese dictionary] (in Chinese), 1st edition, Beijing, →ISBN, page 23
• 马伟 [Ma Wei], 朝克 [Chaoke] (2014), “ax”, in 撒拉语366条会话读本 [Salar 366 Conversation Reader]‎^[10], 1^st edition, 社会科学文献出版社 [Social Science Literature Press], →ISBN, page 113
• 马伟 [Ma Wei] (2016), “ax”, in 濒危语言——撒拉语研究 [Endangered Languages ​​- Salar Language Studies], 青海 [Qīnghǎi, Qinghai]: 青海师范大学 [Qinghai Normal University], unpublished finalized project manuscript (国家社会科学基金项目结项稿, 定稿; National Social Science Fund of China), page 292

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈax/ [ˈax]
• Rhymes: -ax
• Syllabification: ax

Noun

ax m (plural axes)

1. obsolete form of aje

Interjection

ax

1. (archaic) expression of pain, ouch

   Synonym: au

Further reading

• “ax”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse ax.

Noun

ax n

1. an ear (fruiting body of a grain plant)

Declension

Declension of ax

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	ax	ax
	definite	axet	axets
plural	indefinite	ax	ax
	definite	axen	axens

Verb

ax (present ax, preterite ax, supine ax, imperative ax)

1. (slang) alternative form of axa

References

• “ax”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “ax”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “ax”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• Slangopedia

Talysh

Alternative forms

• ak (Lerik, Masally)

Etymology

Probably related to Persian عرق.

Noun

ax

1. sweat