Word.ws English Dictionary

4to

4to is the abbreviation of quarto.

Meaning of quarto

Noun

quarto (countable and uncountable, plural quartos)

  1. (paper) A size of paper (7.5"-10" x 10"-12.5" or 190-254 x 254-312 mm). Formed by folding and cutting one of several standard sizes of paper (15"-20" x 20"-25" or 381-508 x 508-635 mm) twice to form 4 leaves (eight sides).
    1. (UK, paper) Quarto writing paper (10 inches x 8 inches)
  2. A book size, corresponding to the paper size.
    • Beneath an old ebony table were two long carved oak chests. I lifted the lid of one, and at the top was a once-white surplice covered with dust, and beneath was a mass of tracts — Commonwealth Quartos, unbound — a prey to worms and decay.1880, William Blades, The Enemies of Books, page 40
    Synonyms:
    4to, 4º, Q

Synonyms of 4to

Forms of 4to

plural4tos

Origin of 4to

From Latin quārtō, ablative case singular of quārtus (“fourth”).

Questions about 4to

What is 4to the abbreviation of?
4to is the abbreviation of quarto.

Words near 4to in the dictionary

  1. 4th wall joke
  2. 4th wall jokes
  3. 4th walls
  4. 4th World
  5. 4thly
  6. 4to
  7. 4tos
  8. 4tran
  9. 4tw
  10. 4uck
  11. 4ucked

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 4to (page history and authors); quarto (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “4to.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/4to. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.