The spelling of the word "xe" follows the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcription. It is pronounced as /zi:/, which is similar to the sound of the English word "sea". The X represents the voiced alveolar fricative consonant (/z/), while the E represents the long vowel (/i:/) sound. The word "xe" is not commonly used in everyday English, but it is often used in Scrabble games as it is worth eight points.