Word.ws English Dictionary

four-o'clock

four-o'clock is the alternative form of four o'clock.

Meaning of four o'clock

Noun

four o'clock (uncountable)

  1. (In both the 12-hour clock and the 24-hour clock) The start of the fifth hour of the day; 4:00 a.m. (04:00).
    • The breakfast buffet opens at four o'clock (= "The breakfast buffet opens at 4:00 a.m.").
  2. (Only in the 12-hour clock) The start of the seventeenth hour of the day; 4:00 p.m. (16:00).
    • The next train comes at four o'clock (= "The next train comes at 16:00").
  3. (informal) A position to the right and slightly behind (horizontal clock orientation) (from the location of the 4 mark on a clock face)
    • We've got a bogey at four o'clock.
  4. Any of several plants, of the genus Mirabilis, whose funnel-shaped flowers open in late afternoon.
  5. The friarbirds (Philemon spp.); so called from its cry, which resembles these words.

Forms of four-o'clock

pluralfour-o'clocks

Phrases with four-o'clock

Questions about four-o'clock

What is four-o'clock the alternative form of?
Four-o'clock is the alternative form of four o'clock.

Words near four-o'clock in the dictionary

  1. four-masters
  2. four-minute warning
  3. four-minute warnings
  4. four-momenta
  5. four-momentum
  6. four-o'clock
  7. four-o'clock flower
  8. four-o'clock flowers
  9. four-o'clocks
  10. four-of-a-kind
  11. four-on-the-floor

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: four-o'clock (page history and authors); four o'clock (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: “four-o'clock.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/four-o%27clock. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.