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Vocabulary.com
vocabulary.com › articles › wc › why-do-we-say-oxen-and-not-oxes
Why Do We Say "Oxen" And Not "Oxes"? : Word Count | Vocabulary.com
Vocabulary.com : Word Count - Mignon Fogarty, better known as her alter ego Grammar Girl, has been sharing a series of short tips on usage and style. In her latest installment, she explains why the plural of the word ox is oxen instead of oxes.
Discussions

grammatical number - How did "oxen" (plural of "ox") survive as the only plural form with the Old English plural ending -en? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
Bring the best of human thought and AI automation together at your work. Explore Stack Internal ... Oxen is a rare exception in English where it is the only common English word that retains the original Old English plural ending -en. More on english.stackexchange.com
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"Choose the correct plural of the following word: Ox"
The correct answer is option 2) i.e. Oxen. ... The plural form of 'Ox' is 'Oxen' because some nouns adopt foreign rulings. More on testbook.com
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August 24, 2020
If the plural of Ox is Oxen, then the plural of Box should be Boxen.
And the plural of moose should be meece More on reddit.com
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August 19, 2020
How did oxen become the only Old English -an plural to survive?
While I don't know the reason why -s is preferred to -en, oxen certainly isn't the only one to survive. Children and men come to mind, and I'm sure there are more. More on reddit.com
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July 9, 2015
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Dictionary.com
dictionary.com › browse › ox
OX- Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com
Plural word for ox The plural form of ox is oxen. This is one of the few remaining irregular nouns whose plural derives directly from its original pluralization in Old English. A similar change is made when pluralizing woman (women), man (men), and child (children).
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Old English oxan, plural of oxa, was very common, appearing in the psalter, the bible, and laws, among other places, although the spelling oxen is attested in only one place, in a document relating to Bury St Edmund's possessions, rents, and grants.

The genitive plural form of oxa, often with a syncopated vowel, was ox(e)na. That genitive form is attested in place names (cf. oxenaford, Middle English Oxenford, ModE Oxford, oxeneham ModE Oxnam, oxenesetene ModE Oxsettle Bottom, oxnaleage ModE Oxleigh and Oxley , a woodland clearing or a natural glade, meadow, lea, a plant name oxna-lib glossing Latin oleotropius ModE oxlip, ox-heal), as a unit of measure of land (oxnagang, ModE ox-gang, one-eighth of a "hide"), and in genitive (oxna-paeþ ModE oxens' path) and partitive genitive constructions (ic bohte fif getymu oxena, ic bohte an getyme oxena, ModE I bought five teams of oxen, I bought one team of oxen) and those uses appear not only in texts dealing with quotidien farming and mercantile situations but notably in passages from the Bible, which would frequently have been heard by audiences from all social and economic classes.

The plural appears as oxen and is very well-attested in Middle English in a wide range of texts. It appears in various spellings, including oksen, exen, oxon, oxen, oxsen, oxsin, ocsen (see the MED). Its appearance in proverbial contexts (Moche uolk of religion zetteþ þe zuolȝ be-uore the oksen. Many people of religion set the plow before the oxen) and laws is very strong evidence that it was widely used.

P.S. I have a copy of the Old English corpus and found these attestations by searching it. (I studied Old English and Middle English as an undergraduate and graduate student, back before the days of personal computers, but they haven't changed much in the interim.)

P.P.S. I stumbled upon a book, Working Oxen by Martin Watts. 1999. "... a survey of their use in Britain, their impact upon the countryside, and the relics that can still be found: yokes, bows, shoes, housing and place-names. Martin Watts is curator of the Ryedale Folk Museum in North Yorkshire." [Google Books description] and "Oxen were one of the most important sources of motive power in the British countryside... The working ox has left a lasting mark on the language, landscape and culture... Historians rarely mention or study them. It is as if a history of twentieth century were to ignore the impact of the tractor and the lorry. The purpose of this book is to redress that balance." [from the blurb on Amazon].

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I don't know of any satisfying reason for it.

Note that when the OED says "Old English– oxen (rare)", it means that the specific spelling O-X-E-N was rare in Old English. It doesn't say that oxan was rare, and from the point of view of later development, the difference between Old English oxan and oxen is irrelevant: it was normal for Old English "a" in unstressed syllables to be weakened to schwa, which in Middle English came to be spelled "e". Compare the development of the Old English infinitive ending -an to -e in the case of words like drīfan > drive.

There is a general principle that irregular forms persist longer in frequently used words, but I'm not sure how much it can do to explain the use of the form oxen. I don't think we talk about oxen as much as we used to.

It seems conceivable that the fact that the singular already ends in an /s/ sound made it a bit harder for the sibilant plural to become established, but I'm not really sure if that played an important role: obviously there are multiple other words ending in -x that do form their plurals in -xes, such as foxes, boxes, axes.

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Grammar Monster
grammar-monster.com › plurals › plural_of_ox.htm
The Plural of Ox
What is the plural of ox? The plural of ox is oxen. Confusion arises because 'oxen' derives from German, and native English speakers are drawn to 'oxes,' which adheres to the standard ruling for forming plurals.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/unpopularopinion › if the plural of ox is oxen, then the plural of box should be boxen.
r/unpopularopinion on Reddit: If the plural of Ox is Oxen, then the plural of Box should be Boxen.
August 19, 2020 -

Hear me out. The words Ox and Box are pronounced almost exactly the same. Why should their plural words be any different? Oxen sounds better than Oxes, and Boxen sounds better than Boxes. The word Boxes just has too much "S" sound in it; it sounds awkward. Boxen flows much more nicely. It also sounds more grand and on a larger scale. It makes more sense to say "Look at all the Boxen in this warehouse!" than to say "Look at all the Boxes in this warehouse!" Would you rather go to a farm and say "Look at all the Oxen in this field!" or "Look at all the Oxes in this field!"? The answer is clear. It's time for the word Boxes to go.

In addition, the plural of Cocks should be Coxen.

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Grammarflex
grammarflex.com › knowledgebase › ox-plural
How to Use Ox Plural (Explained, Examples & Worksheet) | GrammarFlex
According to the post, the correct plural form of “ox” is “oxen”. It’s important to remember that “ox” is an irregular noun, which is why its plural doesn’t follow the standard pattern of adding.
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Kylian
kylian.ai › blog › en › plural-of-ox
What’s the Plural of Ox? Irregular Forms Explained
May 13, 2025 - The standard plural form of "ox" is "oxen." This irregular plural formation differs from the typical English pattern of adding "-s" or "-es" to form plurals.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/linguistics › how did oxen become the only old english -an plural to survive?
r/linguistics on Reddit: How did oxen become the only Old English -an plural to survive?
July 9, 2015 - Such is the way of things: often older forms preserved in some dialects become stigmatised by speakers of more 'prestigious' dialects. ... Thanks, that's what I was thinking of Continue this thread Continue this thread Continue this thread ... oxen (n.) plural of ox, it is the only true continuous survival in Modern English of the Old English weak plural.
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FactMonster
factmonster.com › askeds › plural-ox
Plural of "ox"
August 7, 2018 - According to the American Heritage Book of English Usage, "oxen" is one of only three commonly used English words to still use the "-en" plural. The others are "children" and "bretheren" (though "brothers" is used for biological brothers). The use of -en used to be more common, but fell out ...
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YouTube
youtube.com › shorts › IGKm4OrrEec
What’s the Plural of Ox? #grammar#english #esl #teacher #englishlanguage - YouTube
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Published   July 27, 2023
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Homework.Study.com
homework.study.com › explanation › what-is-the-plural-of-ox.html
What is the plural of ox? | Homework.Study.com
Despite words like fox or box - which plural forms are foxes and boxes - the plural of ox is not oxes, but rather oxen.