Ballot Script X

Usually no in replies; on forms, it can mark a choice. If someone sent you an X on its own, read it as refusal, correction, or a cue to cross something out. On a marked form, the same stroke identifies the selected entry; the form tells you what the mark selects.

Use words such as “no,” “cancelled,” or “I chose this” when the decision matters; a lone X leaves the reader to guess which convention you mean.

Where did ballot script X come from?

A 2012 draft chart records the standardization of this form. Unicode and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recorded it alongside ballot boxes, bolder X forms, and check marks. Unicode’s character-name list links 🗴 to ✗, another cross mark. The chart dates computer standardization, not the first use of X on paper.

Before that computer standardization, people used X to cross out text, mark a choice on a ballot or form, show a location on a map, or stand in for a witnessed signature. In Japanese and Korean marking conventions, X is the “no” side against O; Western forms also use X to mark a selected option. The same stroke can signal opposite choices depending on where it appears.