Ex - Definition and Overview

ex, short for EXtended, was a line editor for UNIX. It was an advanced version of the standard UNIX editor ed, included in the Berkeley Software Distribution. Eventually, ex was given a Visual Interface, thereby becoming vi. Most versions of vi still have an "ex mode", and this mode can be invoked on most UNIX-like systems using the command "ex".

In social relationships, an ex is someone with whom a person was once associated. As a prefix, ex- can refer to a variety of different relationships; for example, one might refer to a music group's ex-guitarist. When used alone, ex is assumed to refer to a former sexual or romantic partner, especially a former spouse. This often has a derogatory tinge; some French media take advantage of this connotation by calling French ex-president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing simply the Ex.

Ex is a common spelling of the English name of the letter X. In typesetting, the term ex refers to the height of of the lowercase letter ("x") in a given font.