Word.ws English Dictionary

forties

forties is the plural of forty.

Noun

forties pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) The fifth decade of a century: the 1840s, 1940s, 2040s, etc.
    • My ma was born in the forties and my pa was born in the seventies.
    Synonyms:
    '40s, 40s
  2. (plural, plural-only) The decade of one's life from age 40 through age 49.
    • They're both in their forties.
    • Albrecht Lein reports that the core of the Braunschweig Antifa was made up of KPD and SPD members in their forties and fifties who had avoided the front, though Catholic workers’ organizations and other forces were also involved.2017 May, Loren Balhorn, “The Lost History of Antifa”, in Jacobin Magazine
  3. (plural, plural-only, rates) The range between 40 and 49.
    • What to wear when the weather is in the forties really depends on whether you're talking Fahrenheit or Celsius.

Meaning of forty

Noun

forty (plural forties)

  1. (US, slang) A bottle (of beer) containing forty fluid ounces.
    • It's on, wrap my lips around the forty / And when it comes to getting another stogie […] Grab your forty, let's get keyed1995, “I Got 5 on It”, in Operation Stackola, performed by Luniz

See all 3 meanings of forty

Adjective

forties (not comparable)

  1. From or evoking the 41st through 50th years of a century (chiefly the 1940s).
    • Two forties aircraft sat forgotten in the hangar until they were rediscovered by two trespassing teens.
    • Like any big modern city, Scott's Los Angeles of 2019 is saturated with technologies; in fact, it is most striking for its layering of technologies, styles, lifestyles and ethnicities, which range from oriental peasant altars and cookfires through forties hats and building facades to off-world...1991, Judith B. Kerman, “Technology and Politics in the Blade Runner Dystopia”, in Judith B. Kerman, editor, Retrofitting Blade Runner: Issues in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and Philip K. Dick's Do...

Proper noun capitalized: Forties

Forties

  1. A sea area, in the northern part of the North Sea, where the depth of water is consistently forty fathoms
    Synonyms:
    Long Forties

Synonyms of forties

Forms of forties

alternative form'forties
alternative form1940s
alternative form'40s
alternative form40s

Origin of forties

From forties, due to the dpth of the area.

Words formed from forties

Phrases with forties

Questions about forties

What does forties mean?
Forties means the fifth decade of a century: the 1840s, 1940s, 2040s, etc.
What is forties the plural of?
Forties is the plural of forty.
What part of speech is forties?
Forties can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.

Words near forties in the dictionary

  1. forthy
  2. forthyete
  3. Forti
  4. Fortier
  5. Fortiers
  6. forties
  7. fortieth
  8. fortiethly
  9. fortieths
  10. fortifiable
  11. fortificant

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: forties (page history and authors); Forties (page history and authors); forty (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.

Last updated:

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