Xmas
[ kris-muh s or, often, eks-muh s ]
/ ˈkrɪs məs or, often, ˈɛks məs /
Often Offensive.
Christmas.
usage note for Xmas
The abbreviation
Xmas for Christmas dates from the mid 16th century. The X is the Greek letter
chi, the initial letter in the word
Χριστός (
Chrīstos ) “Christ.” In spite of a long and respectable history, today
Xmas is offensive to many, perhaps because of its associations with advertising. It is not used in formal writing.
Example sentences from the Web for xmas
British Dictionary definitions for xmas
Word Origin for Xmas
C16: from symbol X for Christ +
-mas