Their lost hats were not in box X.
NOTHING was in box X.
— Ant and Bee and the ABC
In a poem, story or song which runs through the letters of the alphabet, the problem is always what to do about X. A mere handful of English words begin with X, many of them borrowed from other languages, such as "xylophone". And even then, x is usually read /z/ in front of words, as opposed to its usual value of /ks/.
In many alphabet songs, poems or charts, especially those aimed at young children, a word which has "x" in the middle or the end of the word is sometimes used, such as "box", "fox", "axe"; and sometimes a word beginning with the "ex" sound is used, such as "extra" (see also the video game genre 4Xnote which does it for all four of its words). There are many words beginning with "ex", but most of them are verbs or abstract nouns, and are difficult to represent with a simple picture. Sometimes X is just described as "a letter," or X, Y, and Z are lumped together in one way or another.
Some works simply omit X, and might also skip over the other tricky letter, Z. If the word for X actually does begin with X, such as the name Xerxes, it is not an example.
This can also apply to games which miss out the letters X and/or Z for simplicity.
Compare Shoehorned Acronym and Xtreme Kool Letterz. See also Shoehorned First Letter, which does not have to list the whole alphabet.
X-amples:
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Advertising
- A series of alphabetical posters were released to advertise the animated film Coraline with a short rhyme that ties into something, someone or some trait in the movie that begins with that letter, beginning with "[letter] is for [word]". The X poster is the exception, referring to a location with "X is the Spot - just past the flowerbed, where Coraline's magic divining rod led."
- The UK mint's 2018 series of 10p pieces with "things that make Britain great" for each letter of the alphabet also went for "X marks the spot"; the reasoning behind this being a symbol of Britain is that Treasure Island is a British classic.
- The Royal Mail "A-Z of Britain" series in 2012 consisted 26 stamps, each featuring an iconic or historically significant location in the UK. X was Bletchley Park, also known as "Station X".
Anime and Manga
- The Ojamajo Doremi song "Sweet Song ABC" lists sweets starting with each letter of the alphabet. For X however they had to just go with one that just has X in it, "miXed juice". For the record there actually are a few desserts that start with X
.
Comic Books
- The 1985 Barbie annual includes an A - Z of beauty tips. X is represented by the word "excess", accompanied by a warning that doing anything to excess is bad for you, including exercise.
- The Phineas and Ferb comics: All of the OWCA animal agents have Alphabetical Theme Naming, with them being referred to as "Agent [First Initial]", with their first initial being the first letter of their species name (for example, Agent P is a platypus or a panda, Agent T is a turtle or a turkey, etc.). In the spinoff comic "Secrets from OWCA: The Organization Without a Cool Acronym", Major Monogram is naming off the agents in alphabetical order and gets to Agent X, who is a xylophone (and thus the only agent who is not an animal). Upon realizing that the Agency hired a xylophone, Major Monogram questions why they did that; when Carl explains that "We didn't have any animals that started with X", Monogram sighs and remarks that Carl gets paid too much.note
Literature
- Discussed in The ABC Murders. The murderer has been killing people by the alphabet, starting with Alice Ascher from Andover and continuing with Betty Barnard from Bexhill-on-Sea. One of the people investigating the crimes wonders what the murderer would do for the letter X. It turns out, however, that the murderer has no intention of going beyond the letter D.
- Albert The Alphabetical Elephant by Roger Hargreaves: A little girl meets an elephant, who teaches her the alphabet, by forming the letters with his trunk, and they think of words beginning with each letter. When they get to X, neither the girl nor Albert can think of any words. At Y, Albert yawns a huge elephant-sized yawn, and by the time he has formed the letter Z, he has fallen asleep.
- In Alligators All Around by Maurice Sendak, alligators perform activities beginning with a letter of the alphabet. When it gets to X, the depiction is of a young alligator drawing X's on a wall with the caption "x-ing x's".
- Xavier from The Alpha Pets is a Xenops who goes exploring, or, as his title says, "X-ploring." This forms a bit of a pun on the "ex-" prefix and the letter X itself.
- Graeme Base's animal alphabet book, Animalia, has an an alliterative animal sentence with smaller related items for every letter of the alphabet — except X, which is done instead with ReX FoX fiXing siX saXophones. The additional images include an X-ray, the sign language symbol for X, and a Christmas — X-mas — tree.
- Ant And Bee And The ABC: When Ant and Bee are looking for their lost hats, they visit a place for lost things, which are put into lettered boxes, each box containing things that begin with that letter. When they get to box X, they find a sign on it saying "X box empty", and nothing inside.
- The Devil's Dictionary dismissively ends its satirical article on X with, "Words beginning with X are Grecian and will not be defined in this standard English dictionary."
- Dr. Seuss's ABC: On "X", they don't share things that begin with X, but rather words with X in them:
X is very useful if your name is Nixie Knox;
It also comes in handy spelling "ax" and "extra fox." - Garfield's Insults, Put-Downs, and Slams has an alphabetical alliterative list of things Garfield hates. He has nothing for X and says if the reader can come up with something for that letter, he'll "eat a wrinkled rancid raisin".
- The Snow Scouts of A Series of Unfortunate Events regularly recite their Alphabet Pledge, describing themselves with 25 adjectives, one for each of the letters of the alphabet... and xylophone. It is explained by one of the Snow Scouts that the reason why xylophone is part of the pledge is due to the fact that the scoutmaster couldn't think of any appropriate adjectives starting with X.
- Kinsey Millhone is a series of Murder Mystery books, starting with A is for Alibi and moving up through Y is for Yesterdaynote . The sole book to break this naming convention is the 24th book, simply titled X.
- Flower Fairies: One of the volumes in this series of illustrated poetry books about flower fairies is an A - Z of British wildflowers. However, as there is no flower beginning with that letter, X is relegated to annoying the Yellow Deadnettle Fairy who represents Y. U also lacks any flowers, though the Vetch Fairy does offer to share some of the flowers beginning with V.
- Letterland: Each character has an Alliterative Name, such as Annie Apple, Bouncy Ben, Clever Cat. X is represented by the cousins Max and Maxine, or in recent years, Fix-It Max.
- Downplayed in the pseudo-encyclopedia The Onion Book of Known Knowledge. The section for X is a page long, saying how few English words start with X and how that will change once China Takes Over the World (since the x- sound is common in Mandarin). Even the section for the nonexistent letter is longer than the one for X.
- In Thomas' ABC Book, the page for the letter X says "X is for eXpress" and is represented by an image of Gordon pulling the express on the viaduct.
- Shel Silverstein parodies this in Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book:
"X is for Xylophone, because X is always for xylophone!"
- Baby Loves Earth: An ABC of Our Planet, a Green Aesop alphabet book by Jennifer Eckford, has "X is for Extinct".
- The Railroad Alphabet, published in 1865, has "X - Xcursion".
- Victorian moralistic alphabet books sometimes had X representing the cross.
- The ABC of Animals, published in the 1870s, shows a picture of an animal for each letter, with a rhyming couplet below. X just shows a landscape with two trees crossing in the shape of an X and a rhyme that basically says "Okay, you think of one."
Now, my young friends, if it will not you vex,
Look for a quadruped named with an X. - Birds, Beasts and Fishes: An Alphabet for Boys and Girls by Charles H Bennet (1855) had anthropomorphic animals for each letter, with a vaguely satirical rhyme beneath them. X shows a fossil in old-fashioned clothing (for 1855) and the rhyme:
X is Extinct, he thinks everything bad,
That was not invented when he was a lad.
Live-Action TV
- Kamen Rider W: The X is used to represent the Extreme Gaia Memory, as in the shortened form of Kamen Rider W CycloneJokerExtreme form, CJX.
- Taskmaster:
- The final task of the first series involves preparing a meal with ingredients that start with each letter of the alphabet. Unsurprisingly, all of the contestants had difficulty thinking of an ingredient beginning with the letter "X", settling for things like "XXX mints" and "X-large". In particular, both Frank and Romesh decided to use a Xylophone; Frank used it as a serving dish while Romesh played it as Alex ate so that it qualified as a part of the meal.
- A rare Q example: In the "pick a letter, then bring back the most things starting with your letter" dual task, David Baddiel has chosen Q, and desperate for items starting with Q, resorts to a bunch of strained rationalizations such as pronouncing "coffee" in an alleged New York accent as "quoffee." In the studio, it's revealed that none of that was necessary: the team had stocked the kitchen with several foods beginning with Q, such as with numerous packets of Quavers, just in case someone picked Q. David found none of them. Ed Gamble jokes that even if David had found the Quavers, he wouldn't have noticed and would have just claimed that they were "quisps."
- The Letter People: Each character's unique trait with a specific thing starting with that letter — except Mr. X, who is miXed-up.
- Sesame Street:
- One animation on Sesame Street has the character give up on words that begin with X, and instead use words that end with X. In another episode sponsored by X, a bunch of kids are asked for examples of words that begin with "X", and all of them say "X-ray", leading to a very repetitive song. Again, Murray then suggests they think of words ending with "X", which is more successful.
- Kermit's "Alphabet in the Swamp" manages to dodge both X and Z:
U is for Universe that's V, Vast and W, Wide
And X marks the spot where I love to hide.
Y is the Yellow Bird that sings so sweet
Which brings me back to Z, and now my alphabet's complete, in the swamp. - "African Alphabet", performed by Kermit and a group of Muppets voiced by Ladysmith Black Mambazo, also has "X marks the spot".
And X marks the spot, 'neath the
Yellow moon, where the
Zulu chief and I did hide.
- One animation
- Star Trek: Enterprise: In "Desert Crossing", Archer and Trip have heatstroke crossing a Thirsty Desert and are trying to keep each other awake by playing a game involving naming places beginning with the last letter of what was last said. When they land on "X", they argue over whether Xanadu counts.
- On Whose Line Is It Anyway?, when they play the alphabet game, they sometimes use words like "Extra" or "Exactly" when they get to X (though Drew typically reaches for a Xaviera Hollander reference.)
Music
- brentalfloss: "The Game Over Tinies" lists video game characters starting with each letter of the alphabet and how they died. The character for "X" is X.
"X is for X, assaulted by bears."
- The song "Jamaican Alphabet" has these lines:
Watermelon, coolin' me dear,
X for extra, that's finish here. - In the song "Shopping from A to Z" by Toni Basil doesn't even try to give a grocery store item that starts with "X", filling in the space for the item name with "nothing." And this is the song where she implies that people buy zippers at the grocery store (using zucchini didn't occur to her?). If you're wondering, the only "X" items that you could feasibly find at a grocery store are xanthan gum (a stabilizer and thickener) and xylitol (an artificial sweetener). And odds are neither was available in 1981 when the song was written. (Even if they were, odds are their brand names would not have started with X!)
- "Alphabet of Nations" by They Might Be Giants gets around there not being any countries whose names begin with W or X by mentioning "West Xylophone". Questioned about the nonexistent country, band member John Flansburgh told fans that they hadn't heard of it before because West Xylophone was the nation's colonial name, and it's now called Marimba.
Poetry
- The poem "A was an apple pie" is about a family of mice with the names B to Z. It dispenses with words for X, Y, Z, and also cheats slightly with the letter E, using a now-obsolete sense of the word.
A was an apple pie. B bit it, C cut it, D dealt it, E eat it, F fought for it, G got it, H had it, I inspected it, J joined for it, K kept it, L longed for it, M mourned for it, N nodded at it, O opened it, P peeped in it, Q quartered it, R ran for it, S stole it, T took it, U upset it, V viewed it, W wanted it.XYZ and ampersandnoteall wished for a piece in hand.
- The poem "A was an archer who shot at a frog" deals with it as follows:
W was a watchman, and guarded the door,X was expensive, and so became poor.
- Edward Lear (of limerick and "The Owl and the Pussycat" fame), when doing alphabet rhymes, favored King Xerxes as his choice for X (XXX whiskey also turned up quite a bit). Since no other entries in the alphabets were human beings (generally they were animals or inanimate objects), this may be the eXception that proves the trope.
Tabletop Games
- Pokémon Trading Card Game: The "Neo Destiny" expansion features a series of cards based on the Unown, a Pokémon that resembles alphabetical symbols. Each one has an ability that is named after a word that starts with that Unown's letter, except for Unown X, which gets "XXXXX". The "Secret Wonders" expansion released 5.5 years later features another Unown X card, but this one has the ability "X-RAY".
- Scattergories uses a 20-sided die to decide the target letter for each round. Since there are slightly more than 20 letters in the alphabet, Q, U, V, X, Y and Z are excluded from the faces.
- Tell Me Quiz: A card is drawn, with a phrase such as "A domestic or farm animal"; and a spinner is spun, and teams compete to be the first to say a word which begins with the letter at which the spinner stops. The spinner misses out the letters X and Z.
Theatre
- Matilda the Musical: The School Song phonetically lists each letter of the alphabet through its lyrics, and verbalizes "X" through "Extremely". Downplayed as this is far from unique, and several other letters are replaced with words that don't literally start with the letter, such as "Z" for "phys ed".
VHS Video
- Geoffrey's Animal Alphabet (1985) has a song for each animal sharing the first letter of its name. The animal for X is oX, with the accompanying song about the way the word is spelled as opposed to beginning with the letter.
- Mother Goose Goes to the Zoo: The 1991 video features a song where the children of the video name a zoo-animal for each letter of the alphabet. For 'X', *giraffe* is chosen as the 'X' animal... this choice is questioned, only for it to be justified; "if it's an X-tra tall giraffe."
- Richard Scarry's ABC Video Ever! (1989) has the teacher of a classroom complimenting each student for a presentation based on the first letter of each name. The student's name for X is Xavier, and the comment she gives after he finishes is "eXcellent".
Video Games
- Pokémon Gold and Silver: The "Unown Mode" of the Pokédex showcases all 26 (at the time) forms of Unown as well as a word for each one, written out in Unown script. However, for Unown X, the word used is "XXXXX". The "Unown Report" in the remakes does something similar with all 28 forms, still associating Unown X with "XXXXX", but also associating Unown ? and Unown ! with "?????" and "!!!!!", following Unown X's example.
- Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon: When an Unown is a party member, they tend to say phrases that either feature words that start with their letter, or they make puns with that letter. Unown X, however, makes references to crossing fingers instead.
Web Animation
- Homestar Runner:
- On Trogday '08, Strong Bad sings a song about the "S is for Sucks" dragon that he originally drew before drawing Trogdor, in the style of an alphabet song. The "X" word is "X-cuse me", though he also cheats with some other letters, such as ''kill-ill-ling" being for both K and L.
- In the Strong Bad Email "love poems", Homestar's poem to Marzipan, which is just a lavishly-produced grocery list that makes an acrostic out of her name, includes the line "Z is too hard, so on this one I'll pass".
- StoryBots
- The song "Extraordinary X", minus the standards of "xylophone" and "x-ray", uses the letter in words that contain the letter, rather than starting with it, such as "fox" "boxers", and "Texas".
- Downplayed in "I'll Be with Z". While the song brings up things such at "zoo" and "zebra" for a majority of the song, it also resorts to using words like "jazz" and "fuzzy".
Web Original
- Played for Laughs in "Alphabetical Sketch" by Dropout (then CollegeHumor). When they get to the final three letters of the alphabet, they have to awkwardly use the only word that starts with X despite it not fitting at all and photoshop an image to make it look like they're actually wearing xylophones as clothing.
"What were we wearing when we went whaling Wednesday?"
"...Xylophones?" - This blog post reviews children's alphabet literature for what was done about X before X-rays were invented and the xylophone was popularized: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/x-is-for/ Answer: various strategies were used ("X is a letter that...", lumping XYZ together, using "ex-" words such as "eXpensive," or using "Xany" as an alternate spelling of "zany"), but the most common X appears to have been King Xerxes of Persia, for some reason.
- Parodied in Learn the Alphabet with My Little Pony from the channel Stunthead. The segment for X depicts a clip from "Sparkle's Seven" where Twilight Sparkle thinks deeply and Spike acts shocked. This is followed by a clip of Trixie from "A Horse Shoe-In" saying this:
Trixie: I think the words you're looking for are "Xllch Veagh Lyegh".
Web Video
- William Wegman's Alphabet Soup teaches kids the alphabet using two alternating segments. One type of segment goes through each letter and lists multiple words starting with that letter. The other type has two of Wegman's dogs making an "alphabet soup," consisting of a type of food that starts with each letter. Played straight with the alphabet soup segment: instead of coming up with a food that starts with X, they simply use two celery sticks crossed in the shape of an X.
Western Animation
- Defied in Dinosaur Train's "Dinosaurs A to Z" arc. The Pteranodon siblings are gathering all the dinosaurs in the titular song for a picnic. When they've almost finished, Shiny realises they forgot the letter X. Just then, Xavier Xenotarsosaurus introduces himself.
- Mr. Men - The Great Alphabet Hunt: The Mr. Men and Little Misses are looking for words that begin with each letter of the alphabet, excluding X which is found in eXit.
- The Octonauts: A promotional music video sees Professor Shellington sing an A-to-Z list of all the sea creatures they had encountered thus far. However, only X was unrepresented, so instead Shellington announces a "Xylophone solo!" and Peso plays a riff on his xylophone.
- Over the Garden Wall: Schoolteacher Ms. Langtree sings a song that's half Grief Song about her boyfriend leaving her, half lesson about the alphabet. She doesn't bother finding a word to represent "X," simply using the letter as a synonym for "cross out."
You (Y, not U) have got to understandThe value of a woman's heart (V!)Why (W, not Y) did you think it was fineTo X me from the start?