Weird and Wonderful Words Part 9: The ‘X’ Stands Alone

Words That Begin With X

The letter X seemed worthy of having its own blog post in this series of weird and wonderful words. Click to view other parts of this series:

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, and Part 8.

X: Always a challenge in Words with Friends and Scrabble! Well, if you are getting tired of xi, here are some other words that begin with x. Words that begin with ex are common, but just x??? Here we go . . . .

xanthippe – an ill-tempered woman

xanthodont – one with yellow teeth (ew!)

xanthous  – yellow or yellowish

xebec – a small, three-masted ship with an overhanging bow and stern, once common in the Mediterranean

xeme –  fork-tailed gull

xenagogue  – guide; someone who conducts strangers

xenial – of or concerning hospitality toward guests

xenocracy – government by a body of foreigners

xenodocheionology – love of hotels

xenoglossia – person’s knowledge of a language never studied

xenograft – a graft of skin, bone, etc., from an individual of another species

xenology – the study of extraterrestrial phenomena

xenomenia –  menstruation from abnormal orifice (I don’t even want to think about it!)

xenophilia – attraction or admiration of anything or anyone foreign or strange

xenophobia – fear of anything or anyone foreign or strange

xerasia – abnormal dryness of the hair (I can relate! Conditioner!!!!)

xeric – having dry or desert-like conditions

xerophyte – plant structurally adapted to growing in very dry conditions

xertz- to gulp down quickly and greedily

xi – the fourteenth letter of the Greek alphabet (now I know what it means!)

xiphoid – sword-shaped

xiphosuran  –  the horseshoe crabs and related extinct forms

xu –  former monetary unit of Vietnam (good one for Scrabble?)

xylograph – a woodcut or wood engraving

xyloid – of or like wood, woody

xylophilous – fond of wood; living in or on wood

xylotomous – able to bore into or cut wood, said of certain insects (like termites, for instance?)

xyster – surgical instrument for scraping bones

 

 

 Happy Holidays from The Grammar Diva!