X

X, or x, is the 24th and third-to-last letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is "ex" (pronounced 'ɛks), plural exes. In Ancient Greek, 'Χ' and 'Ψ' were among several variants of the same letter, used originally for /kh/ and later, in western areas such as Arcadia, as a simplification of the digraph 'ΧΣ' for /ks/. In the end, more conservative eastern forms became the standard of Classical Greek, and thus 'Χ' (Chi) stood for /kh/ (later /x/; palatalized to [ç] in Modern Greek before front vowels). However, the Etruscans had taken over 'Χ' from western Greek, and it therefore stands for /ks/ in Etruscan and Latin. The letter 'Χ' ~ 'Ψ' for /kh/ was a Greek addition to the alphabet, placed after the Semitic letters along with phi 'Φ' for /ph/. In English orthography, is typically pronounced as the voiceless consonant cluster ks when it follows the stressed vowel (e.g. ox), and the voiced consonant ɡz when it precedes the stressed vowel (e.g. exam). It is also pronounced ɡz when it precedes a silent and a stressed vowel (e.g. exhaust). Before , or , it can be pronounced kʃ or ɡʒ (e.g. sexual and luxury); these result from earlier ksj and gzj. It also makes the sound kʃ in words ending in -xion (except for axion). When ends a word, it is always ks (e.g. fax), except in loan words such as faux (see French, below). There are very few English words that start with (the fewest of any letter). When does start a word, it is usually pronounced 'z' (e.g. xylophone, xenophobia, and xanthan). When starting in some names or as its own representation it is pronounced 'eks', in rare recent loanwords or foreign proper names, it can also be pronounced s (e.g. the obsolete Vietnamese monetary unit xu) or ʃ (e.g. Chinese names starting with Xi like Xiaomi or Xinjiang). Many of the words that start with are of Greek origin, or standardized trademarks (Xerox) or acronyms (XC). In abbreviations, it can represent "trans-" (e.