forty
Syllables: for·tyUK/ˈfɔːti/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈfoːtɪj/
forty numeral: the cardinal number occurring after thirty-nine and before forty-one, represented in Roman numerals as XL and in Arabic numerals as 40.
Numeral
forty
- The cardinal number occurring after thirty-nine and before forty-one, represented in Roman numerals as XL and in Arabic numerals as 40.
- 'Tis forty years this very day,
Since you and I, old girl, were married.1825, unknown, Harrison's Amusing Picture and Poetry Book, page 35
- Synonyms:
- twoscore
- 'Tis forty years this very day,
Noun
forty (plural forties)
Adjective
forty (comparative more forty, superlative most forty)
- Resembling or characteristic of a fort.
forty meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
forty in Hindi
- the cardinal number occurring after thirty-nine
- चालीस cālīs
forty in Tamil
- the cardinal number occurring after thirty-nine
- நாற்பது nāṟpatu
forty in Marathi
- forty
- चाळीस cāḷīs
forty in Urdu
- the cardinal number occurring after thirty-nine
- چالیس cālīs
More languagesFewer languages
- forty in Bengali
- চল্লিশ colliś
- forty in Telugu
- నలభై nalabhai
- forty in Malayalam
- നാല്പത് nālpatŭ
- forty in Kannada
- ನಲವತ್ತು, ನಾಲ್ವತ್ತು, ನಾಲ್ವತು
- forty in Punjabi
- ਚਾਲ਼ੀ cāḷī, ਚਾਲ੍ਹੀ cālhī
- forty in Gujarati
- ચાલીસ cālīs
- forty in Odia
- ଚାଳିଶ cāḷiśa
- forty in Sanskrit
- चत्वारिंशत् catvāriṃśat
- forty in Sinhala
- හතළිහ hataḷiha
- forty in Assamese
- চল্লিছ sollis
- forty in Nepali
- चालीस cālīs
- forty in Pashto
- څلوېښت śalwex̌t
- forty in Tagalog
- apatnapu
- forty in Arabic
- أَرْبَعُونَ ʔarbaʕūna
- forty in Malay
- empat puluh
- forty in Indonesian
- empat puluh
- forty in Persian
- چهل čehel
- forty in Thai
- สี่สิบ sìi-sìp
- forty in Vietnamese
- bốn mươi, bốn chục
- forty in Myanmar
- လေးဆယ် le:hcai
- Dhivehi
- ސާޅީސް sāḷīs
- Dzongkha
- བཞི་བཅུ bzhi bcu
Examples of forty in a sentence
- Social workers should work on a maximum of forty active cases.
- I want to buy one that costs somewhere between forty and fifty dollars.
- I was in stasis for forty years before I woke up orbiting this poxy planet!
Synonyms of forty
Forms of forty
| Numeral | |
|---|---|
| alternative form (obsolete) | fourty |
| Noun | |
| plural | forties |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more forty |
| superlative | most forty |
Origin of forty
From Middle English fourty, forty, from Old English fēowertiġ, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *fedwōr tigiwiz (“forty”). By surface analysis, four + -ty.
From fort + y.
Words formed from forty
- back forty
- forty-eighter
- forty-eleven
- forty-foot equivalent unit
- fortyish
- forty legs
- forty-leven
- Forty Mile
- fortypenny
- forty-rod
- forty-second cousin
- forty-something
- fortysomething
- forty-spot
- forty weepy weepy
- forty winks
- home forty
- pianny-forty
- pianny forty
- plough the back forty
- roaring forties
- sea forty legs
- top forty
- two-forty
- two-forty on a plank road
- Forties
- forty minutes of hell
- Forty Thieves
- north forty
Phrases with forty
- forty one
- forty six
- forty two
- forty five
- forty four
- Forty Hill
- forty nine
- Lost Forty
- forty eight
- forty seven
- forty three
- Hell's Forty Acres
3 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with forty
Questions about forty
- What does forty mean?
- Forty means the cardinal number occurring after thirty-nine and before forty-one, represented in Roman numerals as XL and in Arabic numerals as 40.
- What is forty in Hindi?
- Forty in Hindi is चालीस (cālīs). See Forty meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is forty?
- Forty can be a numeral, a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce forty?
- Forty is pronounced /ˈfɔːti/ (UK).
Words near forty in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: forty (page history and authors); चाळीस (Marathi) (page history and authors); forty (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ଚାଳିଶ (Odia) (page history and authors); चालीस (Nepali) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-forty.ogg.
Cite this entry: “forty.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/forty. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.