four
/foɹ/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Scotland[foːɾ]
four numeral: a numerical value equal to 4; the number following three and preceding five.
Numeral
four
- A numerical value equal to 4; the number following three and preceding five.
- There are four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter.
- Venters began to count them—one—two—three—four—on up to sixteen.1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 8, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC
- Describing a set or group with four elements.
Noun
four (countable and uncountable, plural fours)
- The digit or figure 4; an occurrence thereof.
- Anything measuring four units, as length.
- Do you have any more fours? I want to make this a little taller.
- Four o'clock.
- Letters to Sheffield are despatched every morning at six, and arrive every afternoon at ten minutes past four.1828, Pigot and Co.'s National Commercial Directory for 1828-9, Comprising a Directory of the Merchants, Bankers, Professional Gentleman … in the Counties of Cheshire, Cumberland …, London...
- Frederick, I presume, at this late hour of four, may be snatching a morsel of dinner; […]1865, Thomas Carlyle, chapter IX, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume VI, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC
- A person who is four years old.
- I'll take the threes, fours and fives and go to the playground.
- An event in which the batsmen run four times between the wickets or, more often, a batsman hits a ball which bounces on the ground before passing over a boundary, resulting in an award of 4 runs for the batting team. If the ball does not bounce before passing over the boundary, a six is awarded instead.
- A power forward.
- The shell itself.
- The team bought a new four last season.
- The crew rowing in a four boat.
- Our four won both races.
- A regatta event for four boats.
- We got third place in the varsity four.
- A four-pennyworth of spirits.
- I was a-strollin' down, thinkin' between ourselves how uncommon handy a four of gin hot would be, when suddenly the glint of a light caught my eye in the window of that same house.1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, section IV
four meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
four in Hindi
- the cardinal number 4
- चार cār, चतुर catur, चहार cahār
- digit or figure 4
- ४, चार cār
- in cricket
- चौका caukā
four in Tamil
- the cardinal number 4
- நான்கு nāṉku, நால் nāl, நாலு nālu
- describing set or group with four components
- நால் nāl
four in Marathi
- the cardinal number 4
- चार cār
four in Urdu
- the cardinal number 4
- چار cār, چَہار cahār, ۴
More languagesFewer languages
- four in Bengali
- চার car
- four in Telugu
- నాలుగు nālugu
- four in Malayalam
- നാലു nālu, നാല് nālŭ
- four in Kannada
- ನಾಲ್ಕು nālku
- four in Punjabi
- ਚਾਰ cār
- four in Gujarati
- ચાર cār
- four in Odia
- ଚାରି cāri
- four in Sanskrit
- चतुर् catur
- four in Sinhala
- හතර hatara
- four in Assamese
- চাৰি sari
- four in Nepali
- चार cār
- four in Pashto
- څلور calor, ٤
- four in Tagalog
- apat
- four in Arabic
- أَرْبَعَة ʔarbaʕa, أَرْبَع ʔarbaʕ, ٤
- four in Malay
- empat, pat, catur
- four in Indonesian
- empat
- four in Persian
- چَهار čahâr, چار čâr, ۴
- four in Thai
- สี่ sìi
- four in Vietnamese
- bốn
- four in Myanmar
- လေး le:
- Sindhi
- چار čār
- Dhivehi
- ޖަތަރު jataru
- Dzongkha
- བཞི bzhi
Examples of four in a sentence
- Redding’s study asked four psychologists with expertise in anxiety and depressive disorders to rate each self-help book on five criteria: […]2019 May 2, Nina Avramova, “When you should use self-help programs and when to skip them”, in CNN, archived from the original on 13 Jun...
- The larger ships picked up the low lying atoll on their radar about four in the morning at distances from 16 to 26 miles.1972, George Carroll Dyer, chapter XVII, in The Amphibians Came to Conquer: The Story of Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner, volume 2, U.S....
Forms of four
| Numeral | |
|---|---|
| alternative Northumbria | fower |
| alternative pronunciation-spelling | fouh |
| Noun | |
| plural | fours |
Origin of four
PIE word *kʷetwóres Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwṓr Proto-Germanic *fedwōr Proto-West Germanic *feuwar Old English fēower Middle English four English four From Middle English four, from Old English fēower, from Proto-West Germanic *feuwar, from Proto-Germanic *fedwōr, from previous pre-Grimm *petwṓr, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwṓr, the neuter form of *kʷetwóres. Doublet of cuatro and quatre. Cognates include Scots fower, Saterland Frisian fjauer, West Frisian fjouwer, Dutch vier, German Low German veer, German vier, Norwegian Bokmål and Danish fire, Swedish fyra, Gothic 𐍆𐌹𐌳𐍅𐍉𐍂 (fidwōr) and, more distantly, Latin quattuor (whence Spanish cuatro, French quatre), Ancient Greek τέσσαρες (téssares), Irish ceathair, Welsh pedwar, Armenian չորս (čʻors), Lithuanian keturi, Albanian katër, Sanskrit चतुर् (catur).
Words formed from four
- all-fours
- all fours
- all-run four
- back four
- be lost to the four winds
- between you and me and these four walls
- boundary four
- chaise and four
- clue-by-four
- clue by four
- coach and four
- coxless four
- cul-de-four
- figure four
- finger-four
- flat back four
- four-acceleration
- Fouracre
- four ale
- four-ale
- four-ale bar
- four-and-nine
- four and twenty
- four-and-twenty
- Four Ashes
- four-bagger
- four-ball
- fourball
- four-belt
- four-by-four
- 4X4
- four-by-two
- four by two
- four color
- four-color
- four-colour
- four color problem
- four color theorem
- four corners
- Four Crosses
- four-current
- four-cycle
- four-day week
- four-day weekend
- four-dimensional
- four-dimensional chess
- four-dimensionalism
- four-dimensionality
- four-dimensionally
- four-door
- four door house
- four-eyed
- four-eyed fish
- four-eye principle
- four-eyes
- four eyes
- four-fifths
- four figures
- four fingers
- four flat
Phrases with four
- four L
- four Ls
- Big Four
- Fab Four
- four F's
- Camp Four
- four ales
- four foot
- Four Oaks
- Four Olds
- four pips
- last four
90 more phrasesFewer phrases
- fifty four
- Final Four
- forty four
- four flush
- Four Marks
- four score
- grade four
- petit four
- Power Four
- sixty four
- eighty four
- four colors
- four fifths
- Four Floors
- four square
- four twenty
- Frozen Four
- ninety four
- number four
- thirty four
- twenty four
- two by four
- four by twos
- four flushed
- four flushes
- four hundred
- four o'clock
- four oh four
- four one one
- Four Seasons
- Four Species
- gang of four
- rule of four
- seventy four
- stretch four
- four flushing
- Four Freedoms
- Four Horsemen
- four oh fours
- four thousand
- Gangs of Four
- the Four Seas
- Four Lane Ends
- four of a kind
- four winds hat
- Guildford Four
- World War Four
- Four Mile Creek
- four more years
- four penny nail
- four winds hats
- chaises and four
- coaches and four
- four door houses
- four penny nails
- Four Shire Stone
- piano four hands
- Four Knights Game
- Four Noble Truths
- four on the floor
- Four Corners virus
- Four Knights' Game
- four score and ten
- sweet four o'clock
- Four Classic Novels
- four o'clock flower
- four o'clock flowers
- within the four seas
- Four Floors of Whores
- four thieves' vinegar
- four sheets in the wind
- four sheets to the wind
- vanish to the four winds
- history of the four kings
- is lost to the four winds
- four score seven years ago
- vanished to the four winds
- vanishes to the four winds
- was lost to the four winds
- been lost to the four winds
- four treasures of the study
- vanishing to the four winds
- vinegar of the four thieves
- being lost to the four winds
- Four Books and Five Classics
- four score and seven years ago
- Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
- Mother Thumb and her four daughters
- one to begin, two to show, three to make ready, and four to go
- one for the money, two for the show, three to make ready, and four to go
Words that rhyme with four
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about four
- What does four mean?
- Four means a numerical value equal to 4; the number following three and preceding five.
- What is four in Hindi?
- Four in Hindi is चार (cār), चतुर (catur), चहार (cahār). See Four meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use four in a sentence?
- Redding’s study asked four psychologists with expertise in anxiety and depressive disorders to rate each self-help book on five criteria: […]
- What part of speech is four?
- Four can be a numeral or a noun.
- How do you pronounce four?
- Four is pronounced /foɹ/.
Words near four in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: four (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-four.ogg, en-au-four.ogg.
Cite this entry: “four.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/four. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.