four
See also: fore
TranslingualEdit
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| Signal flag for the digit 4 |
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
four
- (international standards) NATO & ICAO phonetic alphabet code for the digit 4.
- Synonym: kartefour (ITU/IMO)
ReferencesEdit
EnglishEdit
| 40 | ||
| ← 3 | 4 | 5 → |
|---|---|---|
| Cardinal: four Ordinal: fourth Latinate ordinal: quartary, quaternary Adverbial: four times Multiplier: fourfold Latinate multiplier: quadruple Distributive: quadruply Collective: foursome Multiuse collective: quadruplet Greek or Latinate collective: tetrad Greek collective prefix: tetra-, tessera- Latinate collective prefix: quadri- Fractional: quarter, fourth Latinate fractional prefix: quadrant- Elemental: quadruplet Greek prefix: tetarto- Number of musicians: quartet Number of years: quadrennium, olympiad | ||
EtymologyEdit
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 West Frisian fjouwer, Dutch and 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, Armenian չորս (čʿors), Lithuanian keturi, Albanian katër, Sanskrit चतुर् (catur).
PronunciationEdit
- (UK)
- (US)
- (General American) enPR: fôr, IPA(key): /fɔɹ/
- (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) enPR: fōr, IPA(key): /fo(ː)ɹ/
- (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA(key): /foə/
(without horse–hoarse merger)Audio (US) (file)
(with horse–hoarse merger)Audio (US) (file)
- (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA(key): /foː/
Audio (AU) (file) - (non-rhotic, dough-door merger, AAVE) IPA(key): /foʊ/
- Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
- Homophones: fore, foure
- Homophone: for (accents with the horse–hoarse merger)
- Homophone: faugh (in non-rhotic dialects with the horse-hoarse merger)
- Homophones: foe, faux (in non-rhotic dialects with the dough-door merger)
NumeralEdit
four
- A numerical value equal to 4; the number after three and before five; two plus two. This many dots (••••)
- There are four seasons: winter, spring, summer and autumn.
- 1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 8, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC:
- Venters began to count them—one—two—three—four—on up to sixteen.
- Describing a set or group with four elements.
Derived termsEdit
Terms derived from four
- all fours
- all-fours
- all-run four
- back four
- between you and me and these four walls
- boundary four
- clue by four
- clue-by-four
- coxless four
- cul-de-four
- figure four
- finger-four
- flat back four
- Four Ashes
- four by two
- four color theorem
- four corners
- Four Crosses
- four door house
- four eyes
- four fingers
- four flush
- four foot
- four F's
- four horsemen
- four hundred
- four L
- Four Lane Ends
- Four Marks
- Four Oaks
- four o'clock
- four o'clock flower
- four of a kind
- four oh four
- four on the floor
- four one one
- four penny nail
- four pips
- four score and seven years ago
- four score and ten
- four score seven years ago
- four sheets in the wind
- four sheets to the wind
- Four Shire Stone
- four square
- four thieves' vinegar
- four thousand
- four treasures of the study
- four twenty
- four winds hat
- four-acceleration
- four-and-twenty
- four-bagger
- four-ball
- four-belt
- four-by-four/4X4
- four-by-two
- four-color/four-colour
- four-current
- four-cycle
- four-dimensional
- four-dimensionalism
- four-door
- four-eye principle
- four-eyed
- four-eyed fish
- four-eyes
- four-fifths
- four-flush
- four-flusher
- four-foot
- four-force
- four-four time
- four-half
- four-handed
- four-in-hand
- four-leaf
- four-leaf clover
- four-leafed clover
- four-leaved clover
- four-legged
- four-legged friend
- four-letter
- four-letter word
- four-lined wave
- four-master
- four-minute warning
- four-momentum
- four-o'clock
- four-o'clock flower
- four-of-a-kind
- four-on-the-floor
- four-peat
- four-penny nail
- four-point
- four-point Calvinist
- four-post bed
- four-poster
- four-pounder
- four-quadrant
- four-ring
- four-seam fastball
- four-seamer
- four-sheet
- four-speed
- four-square
- four-stacker
- four-star
- four-string banjo
- four-string guitar
- four-stroke
- four-stroke engine
- four-stroking
- four-to-the-floor
- four-top
- four-track, four-tracked
- four-tracking
- four-twenty
- four-vector
- four-velocity
- four-wall
- four-waller
- four-walling
- four-way
- four-way cock
- four-way switch
- four-wheel
- four-wheel drive, four-wheel-drive
- four-wheeled
- four-wheeler
- four-wheeling
- fourfold
- fourfooted/four-footed
- fourling
- fourpence
- fourpenny
- fourplex
- fourscore
- foursome
- foursquare
- fourth
- gang of four
- grade four
- last four
- Mother Thumb and her four daughters
- number four
- on all fours
- plus fours
- rare as a four-leaf clover
- rule of four
- stretch four
- ten-four
- thirty-four
- train-of-four
- two by four
- two-by-four
- two-four
Related termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
TranslationsEdit
the cardinal number 4
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describing set or group with four components
See alsoEdit
- Table of cardinal numbers 0 to 9 in various languages
- Last: three, 3
- Next: five, 5
NounEdit
four (countable and uncountable, plural fours)
- (countable) The digit or figure 4; an occurrence thereof.
- (countable) Anything measuring four units, as length.
- Do you have any more fours? I want to make this a little taller.
- A person who is four years old.
- I'll take the threes, fours and fives and go to the playground.
- (cricket, countable) 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.
- (basketball, countable) A power forward.
- (rowing) Four-man sweep racing shell, with or without a coxswain.
- The shell itself.
- The team bought a new four last season.
- The crew rowing in a four boat.
- Our four won both races.
- (colloquial) A regatta event for four boats.
- We got third place in the varsity four.
- The shell itself.
- (obsolete) A four-pennyworth of spirits.
- 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, IV:
- 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, IV:
Derived termsEdit
- (numeral): rouf (back slang)
TranslationsEdit
digit or figure 4
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four years old
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in cricket
basketball: power forward — see power forward
rowing: four-man sweep racing shell or its crew
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four-pennyworth of spirits
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
See alsoEdit
| Playing cards in English · playing cards (layout · text) | ||||||
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| ace | deuce, two | three | four | five | six | seven |
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| eight | nine | ten | jack, knave | queen | king | joker |
Symbols of number four in various numeral systems
- Arabic numerals: 4
- Chinese numerals: 肆, 四
- Greek numerals: (uppercase) Δ΄, (lowercase) δ΄
- Roman numerals: IV or IIII
AnagramsEdit
FrenchEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old French forn, from Latin furnus, from Proto-Italic *fornos, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰr̥-nós, from *gʷʰer- (“warm, hot”).
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
four m (plural fours)
Derived termsEdit
- au four
- avoir une brioche au four
- enfourner
- être au four et au moulin
- faire un four
- four à micro-ondes
- gant de four
- noir comme dans un four
- petit four
Related termsEdit
Further readingEdit
- “four”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
IstriotEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Latin foris, foras. Compare Italian fuori, Friulian fûr, Dalmatian fure, Venetian fora.
AdverbEdit
four
PrepositionEdit
four
Middle EnglishEdit
| 40 | ||
| ← 3 | 4 | 5 → |
|---|---|---|
| Cardinal: four Ordinal: ferthe | ||
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old English feōwer.
PronunciationEdit
NumeralEdit
four
- four[2]
- c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)[3], published c. 1410, Apocalips 6:8, page 119r, column 1; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:
- ⁊ lo a pale hoꝛs .· and þe name was deþ to him þat ſat on hym and helle ſuede him / and power was ȝouen to him on foure partis of þe erþe .· to ſle with ſwerd / ⁊ wiþ hungur / ⁊ wiþ deþ / ⁊ wiþ beeſtis of þe erþe
- And lo! A pale horse, and the name was Death for who that sat on him, and hell trailed him. And power was given to him over four parts of the earth, to slay with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the earth's creatures.
Related termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- ^ Jordan, Richard (1974), Eugene Crook, transl., Handbook of the Middle English Grammar: Phonology (Janua Linguarum; 214)[2], The Hague: Mouton & Co. N.V., , § 109, page 128.
- ^ “four, num.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
NormanEdit
Alternative formsEdit
- fou (Jersey)
EtymologyEdit
From Old French forn, from Latin furnus.
NounEdit
four m (plural fours)
WalloonEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
four m (plural fours)