ex

«ex» in Mova's school dictionary: A person's former husband, wife, girlfriend or boyfriend:… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (an ex, exes; informal); prefix (ex-); preposition (ex, Latin)

meaning for a pupil

1) (informal) A person's former husband, wife, girlfriend or boyfriend: «my mum's ex». tree →

2) As a prefix «ex-», it means «former» or «no longer»: ex-teacher, ex-president, ex-wife. tree →

3) (money, formal) «ex» means «without»: «ex VAT» means without the tax. tree →

4) The letter X. tree →

sense in the lessons

In adult life, after a divorce or break-up, people call their former partner «my ex». In news and stories «ex-» shows who someone used to be. In maths, «x» (said «ex») is often the unknown number. Phrases: «my ex», «his ex-wife», «ex-pupil», «ex-boyfriend».

examples

• Dad still gets on well with his ex. tree →
• My aunt's ex came to the party. tree →
• Mr Lee is an ex-soldier. tree →
• She is an ex-pupil of our school. tree →
• The ex-champion now trains young swimmers. tree →
• In the sum 3 + x = 7, «ex» stands for 4. tree →

note

Informal as a noun; plural exes. As a prefix it needs a hyphen: ex-wife. Trap: do not confuse with «x» the letter used in algebra, which sounds the same. Sensitive word in family talk.

In the corpora

• Someone's «ex» is a person they used to be married to or go out with.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «ex» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.