Word.ws English Dictionary

four-letter

four-letter adjective: used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see four-letter: containing four letters.

Adjective

four-letter

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see four-letter: containing four letters.
  2. Consisting of or characterised by swear words and profanity.
    • a four-letter reply, a four-letter insult, a four-letter tirade

Origin of four-letter

Figurative use modelled on four-letter word.

Phrases with four-letter

Questions about four-letter

What does four-letter mean?
Four-letter means used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see four-letter: containing four letters.
What part of speech is four-letter?
Four-letter is an adjective.

Words near four-letter in the dictionary

  1. four-legged
  2. four-legged emmet
  3. four-legged friend
  4. four-legged friends
  5. four-leggeds
  6. four-letter
  7. four-letter man
  8. four-letter word
  9. four-letter words
  10. four-lined wave
  11. four-lined waves

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: four-letter (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: “four-letter.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/four-letter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.