GeezerVison is showing en.wiktionary.org — four - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Translingual
|
|
|
|
| Signal flag for the digit 4
|
Alternative forms
Etymology
Borrowed from English four. Doublet of vier.
Pronunciation
Noun
four
- (international standards) NATO & ICAO radiotelephony clear code (spelling-alphabet name) for the digit 4.
- Synonym: kartefour (ITU/IMO)
ICAO/NATO radiotelephonic clear codes editITU/IMO radiotelephonic clear codes editReferences
- ^ Annex 10 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation: Aeronautical Telecommunications; Volume II Communication Procedures including those with PANS status[1], 6th edition, International Civil Aviation Organization, October 2001, archived from the original on 31 March 2019, page §5.2.1.4.3.1
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
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).
Pronunciation
Numeral
four
- A numerical value equal to 4; the number following three and preceding five.
There are four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter.
2019 May 2, Nina Avramova, “When you should use self-help programs and when to skip them”, in CNN[3], Atlanta, Ga.: Warner Bros. Discovery, archived from the original on 13 June 2025:Redding’s study asked four psychologists with expertise in anxiety and depressive disorders to rate each self-help book on five criteria: […]
- Describing a set or group with four elements.
Derived terms
Related terms
Descendants
- Antigua and Barbuda Creole English: fuar, fua
- Aukan: fo
- Australian Kriol: fo
- Belizean Creole: foa, foar
- Bislama: fo
- Cameroon Pidgin: fo̱
- Grenadian Creole English: fo
- Gullah: fo
- Krio: fo
- Nigerian Pidgin: fo̱r
- Pichinglis: fo
- Pijin: foa
- Saramaccan: fɔ́
- Sranan Tongo: fo
- Tok Pisin: foa
- Torres Strait Creole: po
Translations
See also
Noun
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.
- Four o'clock.
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 [...][4], London; Manchester: J. Pigot & Co., page 767:Letters to Sheffield are despatched every morning at six, and arrive every afternoon at ten minutes past four.
1865, Thomas Carlyle, chapter IX, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume VI, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC:Frederick, I presume, at this late hour of four, may be snatching a morsel of dinner; […]
1972, George Carroll Dyer, chapter XVII, in The Amphibians Came to Conquer: The Story of Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner[5], volume 2, U.S. Marine Corps, →OL, page 657:The larger ships picked up the low lying atoll on their radar about four in the morning at distances from 16 to 26 miles.
- 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.
- (obsolete) A four-pennyworth of spirits.
1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, section 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.
Derived terms
- (numeral): rouf (back slang)
Translations
anything measuring four units rowing: four-man sweep racing shell or its crew four-pennyworth of spirits Translations to be checked See also
English terms starting with “four”
Symbols of number four in various numeral systems
Anagrams
French
Etymology
Inherited from Middle French four, from Old French four, forz, forn, from Latin furnus, from Proto-Italic *fornos, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰr̥-nós, from *gʷʰer- (“warm, hot”).
Pronunciation
Noun
four m (plural fours)
- oven
- stove
- flop
Derived terms
Related terms
Descendants
Further reading
Istriot
Etymology
From Latin foris, foras. Compare Italian fuori, Friulian fûr, Dalmatian fure, Venetan fora.
Adverb
four
- out, outside
Preposition
four
- out, outside
Middle English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Inherited from Old English feōwer, from Proto-West Germanic *feuwar, from Proto-Germanic *fedwōr, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres.
Pronunciation
Numeral
four (postpositive foure)
- four[2]
c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)[6], published c. 1410, Apocalips 6:8, folio 119, recto, 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 terms
Descendants
References
- ^ Jordan, Richard (1974), Eugene Crook, transl., Handbook of the Middle English Grammar: Phonology (Janua Linguarum. Series Practica; 218)[2], The Hague: Mouton & Co. N.V., →DOI, § 109, page 128.
- ^ “four, num.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Norman
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Old French forn, from Latin furnus.
Noun
four m (plural fours)
- (Guernsey) oven
Walloon
Pronunciation
Noun
four m (plural fours)
- hay
|
