The homeobox (HOX) gene family plays a fundamental role in carcinogenesis. However, the oncogenic mechanism of HOXC10 in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) remains unclear. In the present study, it was revealed that HOXC10 expression was significantly higher in HNSCC tissues than in adjacent tissues, and a high level of HOXC10 was closely associated with worse clinical outcomes. HOXC10 overexpression promoted HNSCC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, both
in vitro
and
in vivo
. Mechanistically, chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing revealed that HOXC10 drove the transcriptional activation of a disintegrin and metalloproteinase 17 (ADAM17), and the ADAM17/epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)/ERK1/2 signaling pathway facilitating the proliferation of HNSCC. Furthermore, mass spectrometric analysis indicated that HOXC10 interacted with ribosomal protein S15A (RPS15A) and enhanced RPS15A protein expression, activating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway and contributing to invasion and metastasis of HNSCC. Additionally, the methylated RNA immune precipitation and RNA antisense purification assays showed that
N
6
-methyladenosine (m
6
A) writer, methyltransferase-like 3, catalyzed m
6
A modification of the HOXC10 transcript, m
6
A reader insulin like growth factor 2 mRNA binding protein (IGF2BP)1 and IGF2BP3 involved in recognizing and stabilizing m
6
A-tagged HOXC10 mRNA. In summary, the present study identified HOXC10 as a promising candidate oncogene in HNSCC. The m
6
A modification-mediated HOXC10 promoted proliferation, migration, and invasion of HNSCC through co-activation of ADAM17/EGFR and Wnt/β-catenin signaling, providing a novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarker and a potential therapeutic target for HNSCC.