Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The fourth of the seven canonical hours.
  • noun The time of day set aside for this service, usually the sixth hour, or noon.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In the Roman Catholic and Greek churches, in religious houses, and as a devotional office in the Anglican Church, the office of the sixth hour, originally and properly said at midday. See canonical hours, under canonical.
  • noun In music:
  • noun The interval of a sixth.
  • noun In organ-building, a mixture-stop of two ranks separated by a sixth—that is, consisting of a twelfth and a seventeenth.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The office for the sixth canonical hour, being a part of the Breviary.
  • noun The sixth book of the decretals, added by Pope Boniface VIII.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A sexual text message.
  • noun Any electronic message with sexual context.
  • verb intransitive To send a sext message.
  • verb transitive To send (someone) a (sext message).
  • noun The fourth of the canonical hours; usually held at noon.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the fourth of the seven canonical hours; about noon

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English sexte, from Late Latin sexta, from Latin sexta (hōra), sixth (hour), feminine of sextus, sixth; see s(w)eks in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Blend of sex and text ("to send a text message"); partly back-formation from sexting, which is more common.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin sextus ("sixth")

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Examples

Comments

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  • "1. Ecclesiastical The fourth of the seven canonical hours.

    2. Ecclesiastical The time of day set aside for this service, usually the sixth hour, or noon."

    - American Heritage Dictionary

    July 15, 2010

  • 'Sext' and 'sexting' have been suggested to be included in WordReference's English Dictionary:

    http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1789431

    June 17, 2011

  • It’s a bit of a head-scratcher for adults, like me and my Facebook friends, who aren’t inclined to sext with one another. We’re more used to uploading photos of pets, food, babies and concerts, which aren’t nearly as provocative. - Brian X. Chen, NYTimes Reporter, 12/24/2012 re: Facebook's new "Poke" app.

    December 25, 2012