Los Angeles punk band, formed 1977; the original lineup consisted of John X. Doe (bass, vocals), Exene Cervenka (vocals), Billy Zoom (guitar), and D. J. Bonebrake (drums). X played rockabilly-fueled roots rock with a raw punk edge and lyrics that were all gritty poetry. Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek produced their first album, titled Los Angeles. Zoom left the band in 1985, returning in 1994 -- interim guitarists were Dave Alvin of the Blasters and Tony Gilkyson. They are featured in the documentary The Decline of Western Civilization.

X rules.

X is the 24th letter of the English alphabet. Its name sounds like 'ecks' in English and 'equis' in Spanish.

The letter has several sounds: /ks/ and /gz/ in English (/z/ at the beginning of words: Xena, xylophone). In Spanish it also represents /x/ (sounds like h or the ch-sound in loch, depending on your dialect). In Portuguese it can sound like /S/ (a sh-sound).

The letter's shape is borrowed from what we know of now as the Greek letter chi; for a very long time in Greek this letter was first pronounced as an aspirated 'k', then fricativized, but before the alphabets were unified, and different letters stood for different things in different places, the Etruscans (who learned the alphabet from the Greeks) had borrowed a chi that sounded like /ks/. When the Etruscans brought the alphabet to the Romans, the sound remained. And that's why Latin X doesn't look like Greek Ξ!

X is not a very common letter, though you can use it if you want to be exotic. In Latin the letter X seems to be used as an abbreviation for cs (/ks/ sound) wherever possible, but in English we tend to be more conservative about such things.

At least since Edgar Allan Poes story X-ing a Paragrab, 'to X' has been a verb in English, meaning 'to replace letters in text with the letter X'.

In early Christian times, the X symbol was often used as a Christian emblem - actually standing for the Greek chi, the first letter of the word Christ.

'X' is also the name of the software system that provides GUI capabilities to many Unix and Unix-like systems, such as Linux; its full name is X Window System.

Up until the sixteenth century, math problems were written using only words. In the sixteenth century, the plus (+) and minus (-) made their first appearance. Rene Descartes ("I think, therefore I am"), was the first to use "X" as a variable all the time. He actually used letters at the end of the alphabet for unknown variables and letters at the beginning of the alphabet for known variables.

Why "X", one might ask? No one knows for sure. But there have been a few damn good guesses: It's simple to draw on the board, in the sand, etc. (the same reason why illiterate people use "X" to sign their name). In the Middle Ages, most educated aristocrats signed important papers with "X", because it was the sign of the apostle St. Andrew and implied a guarantee to live up to the promises in the document. I guess it just stuck. It was a sign of the times!

X is also used as a substitute for the most things that sounds similar to "cross." This is because the representation of the letter X looks like two sticks crossing each other's path. This abbreviation is commonplace as it is easier than writing the whole 4-5 letter "cross." (It does not speak well for the human race that we don't even have time to write "cross" down). Examples include:

- Xmas (Christmas)

- Xing (Crossing )

- Xover (Crossover)

X /X/ n.

1. Used in various speech and writing contexts (also in lowercase) in roughly its algebraic sense of `unknown within a set defined by context' (compare N). Thus, the abbreviation 680x0 stands for 68000, 68010, 68020, 68030, or 68040, and 80x86 stands for 80186, 80286, 80386, 80486, 80586 or 80686 (note that a Unix hacker might write these as 680[0-6]0 and 80[1-6]86 or 680?0 and 80?86 respectively; see glob). 2. [after the name of an earlier window system called `W'] An over-sized, over-featured, over-engineered and incredibly over-complicated window system developed at MIT and widely used on Unix systems.


The latest advancement in roller coaster design was first introduced to the public in the form of X, which opened in late spring 2001 at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

Designed by Arrow Dynamics, a once-thriving company whose production had dropped off in recent years, the prototype X marks the beginning of Arrow's comeback. The company designed an entirely new form of coaster, calling it the 4th Dimension, or 4D. Rumors about 4D circulated throughout the coaster community, but no one knew what it would be until someone found a video on Arrow's FTP server. The video was removed within a few hours of its discovery, but those who saw it told of an amazing new innovation.

On most roller coasters, the trains run parallel to the track. On X, they actually hang off either side, and the vehicles can spin independently, forwards or backwards in a 360-degree circle on a separate axis from the track. Even the track itself required a new design, with an extra rail to support the additional wheel assembly. As on an inverted coaster, the rider's legs dangle freely from the cars as they flip throughout the ride.

A ride on X begins with a twenty-story plummet toward the ground - which riders are sent through headfirst - at the near-vertical angle of 88 degrees for part of the 202-foot drop. The ride's top speed is 76mph, and there are six inversions along the 3,600-foot track.


A musical symbol that approximates that of the double-sharp.

The double-sharp, in music terms, is a marker that only appears on notes not previously marked with an accidental (a key signature applied to a note is nullified). It causes the note to fall two half-steps higher musically, typically from a white key to its next highest white neighbor. For example:

Ex enharmonically equals F#

Dx with a D# in the key signature enharmonically equals E

Cx enharmonically equals D

Of course, one could technically have triple-sharps and so forth, but besides being sadistic (or masochistic, depending on who the musician is), it is typically unneeded, unless one uses a key signature like Bbb major (A major), which (except in mental exercises in a music theory class) simply do not happen in real music. And yes, double sharps can appear in key signatures.

The title of a Japanese manga series by the group CLAMP, serialized in the monthly magazine Asuka. Published in the U.S. by Viz Comics under the name X/1999. Also made into a movie and a twenty-five episode anime.

The story centers around the teenage boy Kamui, who must decide the fate of humanity by choosing to fight for its preservation as a Dragon of Heaven or to fight for its destruction as a Dragon of Earth. The Dragons of Heaven and the Dragons of Earth, a colorful mix of eccentric individuals with unique supernatural powers and private motives for fighting, assemble in present-day Tokyo to battle for the Earth.

The authors CLAMP have promised a different ending for all three tellings of the story, feeding various theories about the only one yet to be revealed: the end of the manga, currently on its eighteenth volume. In Japan, each volume features characters from the story as figures in The Major Arcana of a Tarot deck, leading people to guess that the series will run twenty volumes, from The Magician through Judgment. X Zero, featuring The Fool, was an artbook, and it seems likely that X Twenty-One, with The World, will be its partner.

Unfortunately, the X manga is currently on indefinite hiatus, with no new installments since May 2003. CLAMP's focus has been diverted to its two newest series, XXXHolic and Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, and there is no telling when they might return to X. I have heard people call it their never-ending story, given that it was begun in 1992, and one would assume that CLAMP intended to finish it sometime before or during what in the story is the fateful year of 1999.

What exists of the manga is a somewhat slow-moving tale, full of darkness and angst and pretty boys, interspersed between much destruction and gore. It has an interesting plot, with many twists and turns, and introduces many philosophical points worth pondering. And CLAMP are, as always, mistresses of the unexpected.

As for the movie, it is your perfect example of what happens when you try to pack too much story into too little time. It can be easily summarized:

"Dragon of Heaven, meet Dragon of Earth. Fight. Die. Next."

Its only redeeming factor is gorgeous animation, but that's a hard sell against the lack of character development.

The anime series is a infinite improvement over the movie. It keeps the beautiful art, and adds a more faithful and detailed retelling of the manga, although with some departures, of course, and its own unique ending.

"X" is often used in English to indicate signature lines:
John Q. Sekicho
President and CEO
Sekicho Heavy Industries Co., Ltd.
...as well as kisses.
i miss u hun ok? lots of love xxxxx -pookie
Most people don't know how these practices arose... or that they both come from the same source. Y'see, back in medieval Britain, people would write a St. Andrew's cross after their signatures, to indicate their good faith. After drawing the cross on the document, they would kiss it.

Over the centuries, the cross gradually mutated into an X, and even though people stopped kissing it, they still correlated kisses with X's.


X (eks).

X, the twenty-fourth letter of the English alphabet, has three sounds; a compound nonvocal sound (that of ks), as in wax; a compound vocal sound (that of gz), as in example; and, at the beginning of a word, a simple vocal sound (that of z), as in xanthic. See Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 217, 270, 271.

The form and value of X are from the Latin X, which is from the Greek Χ, which in some Greek alphabets had the value of ks, though in the one now in common use it represents an aspirated sound of k.


© Webster 1913.

Log in or registerto write something here or to contact authors.