four

Translingual

Signal flag for the digit 4

Alternative forms

• Four, FOUR

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwṓr

Proto-Germanic *fedwōr

Proto-West Germanic *feuwar

Old English fēower

Middle English four

English fourbor.

Translingual four

Borrowed from English four. Doublet of vier.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈfoa], like lower (non-rhotic)

Noun

four

1. (international standards) NATO & ICAO radiotelephony clear code (spelling-alphabet name) for the digit 4.

   Synonym: kartefour (ITU/IMO)

ICAO/NATO radiotelephonic clear codesedit

• Alfa
• Bravo
• Charlie
• decimal
• Delta
• Echo
• eight
• five (“fife”)
• four (“fower”)
• Foxtrot
• Golf
• Hotel
• hundred
• India
• Juliett
• Kilo
• Lima
• Mike
• nine (“niner”)
• November
• one
• Oscar
• Papa
• Quebec
• Romeo
• seven
• Sierra
• six
• Tango
• thousand
• three (“tree”)
• two
• Uniform
• Victor
• Whiskey
• Xray
• Yankee
• zero
• Zulu

ITU/IMO radiotelephonic clear codesedit

• nadazero
• unaone
• bissotwo
• terrathree
• kartefour
• pantafive
• soxisix
• setteseven
• oktoeight
• novenine

English

English numbers ^(edit)

	40
←  3	4	5  →
Cardinal: four     Ordinal: fourth     Abbreviated ordinal: 4th     Latinate ordinal: quartary, quaternary     Latinate reverse order ordinal: preantepenultimate     Adverbial: four times     Multiplier: fourfold     Latinate multiplier: quadruple     Distributive: quadruply     Germanic collective: foursome     Collective of n parts: quadruplet     Greek or Latinate collective: tetrad     Greek collective prefix: tetra-, tessera-     Latinate collective prefix: quadri-     Fractional: quarter, fourth     Elemental: quadruplet     Greek prefix: tetarto-     Number of musicians: quartet     Number of years: quadrennium, olympiad     Quantile: quartile

Alternative forms

• fower (Northumbria)
• fouh (eye dialect)

Etymology

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).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /foɹ/

• (rhotic, horse–hoarse merger)
  • Homophone: for

    • Audio (US, horse–hoarse merger):

      (file)

• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger)
  • IPA^(key): [foːɾ] (Scotland, South Asia)

    • Audio (US, without the horse–hoarse merger):

      (file)

• (non-rhotic, horse–hoarse merger)
  • Homophones: for, faugh
  • IPA^(key): [fɔː] (Received Pronunciation)
  • IPA^(key): [foː] (Standard Southern British, Australia, New Zealand)

    • Audio (Australia):

      (file)

• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger)
  • IPA^(key): [foə] (US, non-rhotic)

• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger but with dough–door merger)
  • Homophones: foe, faux
  • IPA^(key): [foʊ] (African-American Vernacular)
  • IPA^(key): [foː] (South Asia, non-rhotic)

• Homophones: for (horse–hoarse merger); Thor (th-fronting, horse–hoarse merger); thaw (non-rhotic, th-fronting, horse–hoarse merger)
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)

Numeral

four

1. A numerical value equal to 4; the number following three and preceding five.

   There are four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter.

   • 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.

   • 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: […]

2. Describing a set or group with four elements.

Derived terms

Terms derived 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
• fourball
• four-ball
• 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
• Four Floors of Whores
• four flush
• four-flush
• four-flusher
• four-fold
• fourfold
• four-foot
• four foot
• fourfooted, four-footed
• four-force
• four-four time
• four F's
• fourgie
• fourgon
• fourgram
• four-half
• four-handed
• fourhanded
• four-hankie
• four horsemen
• four hundred
• four-in-hand
• fourish
• four L
• Four Lane Ends
• four-leaf
• four-leaf clover
• four-leafed clover
• four-leaved clover
• four-legged
• four-legged emmet
• four-legged friend
• four-letter
• four-letter man
• four-letter word
• four-lined wave
• fourling
• Four Marks
• four-master
• Four Mile Creek
• four-minute warning
• four-momentum
• four more years
• fourness
• Four Oaks
• four-o'clock
• four o'clock
• four-o'clock flower
• four o'clock flower
• four of a kind
• four-of-a-kind
• four oh four
• four one one
• four-on-the-floor
• four on the floor
• fourpartite
• fourpeat
• four-peat
• fourpence
• fourpenny
• four penny nail
• four-penny nail
• fourpiece
• four pips
• fourplay
• fourplex
• four-point
• four-point Calvinist
• four-post bed
• four-poster
• four-poster bed
• four-pounder
• four-quadrant
• fourquel
• four-ring
• Four-Russians
• four-score
• fourscore
• four score
• four score and seven years ago
• four score and ten
• four score seven years ago
• four-seamer
• four-seam fastball
• four-seater
• four-sheet
• four sheets in the wind
• four sheets to the wind
• Four Shire Stone
• four-shooter
• four-sided
• foursies
• foursome
• four-speed
• fourspine
• four-square
• foursquare, four square
• four-stacker
• four-star
• four-string banjo
• four-string guitar
• four-stroke
• four-stroke engine
• four-stroking
• fourteen
• fourth
• four thieves' vinegar
• four thousand
• fourtino
• four-top
• four-to-the-floor
• four-track, four-tracked
• four-tracking
• four treasures of the study
• four-twenty
• four twenty
• four-vector
• four-velocity
• four-wall
• four-waller
• four-walling
• four-way
• four-way cock
• four-way stop
• four-way switch
• four-wheel
• four-wheel drive, four-wheel-drive
• four-wheeled
• four-wheeler
• four-wheeling
• four winds hat
• gang of four
• grade four
• history of the four kings
• last four
• match-four game
• Mother Thumb and her four daughters
• number four
• on all fours
• on fours
• piano four hands
• plus fours
• Power Four
• rare as a four-leaf clover
• rule of four
• stretch four
• sweet four o'clock
• ten-four
• thirty-four
• three-four time
• train-of-four
• twenty-four hour day
• two-by-four
• two by four
• two-four
• two-four time
• vanish to the four winds
• vinegar of the four thieves
• within the four seas

Related terms

• fourth
• farthing

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 four/translations § Numeral.

See also

• Table of cardinal numbers 0 to 9 in various languages
• Last: three, 3
• Next: five, 5

Noun

four (countable and uncountable, plural fours)

1. (countable) The digit or figure 4; an occurrence thereof.
2. (countable) Anything measuring four units, as length.

   Do you have any more fours? I want to make this a little taller.

3. 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.

4. A person who is four years old.

   I'll take the threes, fours and fives and go to the playground.

5. (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.
6. (basketball, countable) A power forward.
7. (rowing) Four-man sweep racing shell, with or without a coxswain.
   1. The shell itself.

      The team bought a new four last season.

   2. The crew rowing in a four boat.

      Our four won both races.

   3. (colloquial) A regatta event for four boats.

      We got third place in the varsity four.

8. (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

digit or figure 4

• Armenian: չորս (hy) (čʻors)
• Asturian: cuatro (ast) m
• Basque: lau (eu)
• Belarusian: чацвёрка f (čacvjórka)
• Bulgarian: четво́рка (bg) f (četvórka)
• Catalan: quatre (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 四 (yue) (sei³)

  Mandarin: 四 (zh) (sì)

• Danish: firtal n
• Dutch: vier (nl) f
• Finnish: nelonen (fi)
• French: quatre (fr) m
• German: Vier (de) f
• Greek: τέσσερα (el) n (téssera)
• Hindi: ४ (hi) (4), चार (hi) (cār)
• Italian: quattro (it)
• Japanese: 四 (ja) (yon), フォー (ja) (fō)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: چوار (çwar)

• Lithuanian: ketvertas (lt) m
• Macedonian: четворка f (četvorka)
• Papiamentu: kuater
• Pennsylvania German: fierra, vier, viere, fiah
• Polish: czwórka (pl) f
• Portuguese: quatro (pt) m
• Romanian: patru (ro) m
• Russian: четвёрка (ru) f (četvjórka)
• Spanish: cuatro (es)
• Swedish: fyra (sv) c
• Tagalog: apat (tl)

anything measuring four units

• Finnish: nelonen (fi)

four years old

• Finnish: nelivuotias
• Polish: czterolatek (pl) m, czterolatka (pl) f
• Russian: четырёхлетний (ru) m (četyrjóxletnij), четырёхлетняя f (četyrjóxletnjaja), четырёхлетнее n (četyrjóxletneje), четырёхлетка (ru) c (četyrjóxletka)

in cricket

• Hindi: चौका (hi) (caukā)

basketball: power forward — see power forward

rowing: four-man sweep racing shell or its crew

• Bulgarian: четворка (bg) f (četvorka)
• Finnish: nelikko (fi)
• German: Doppelvierer m

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

• Romanian: ^{(please verify)} patru (ro) m
• Ukrainian: ^{(please verify)} четві́рка (uk) f (četvírka)

See also

English terms starting with “four”

Playing cards in English · playing cards (layout · text)
ace	deuce, two	three, trey	four, cater	five, cinque	six	seven
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

Anagrams

• Rufo, furo, rouf, rufo-, uORF

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

• IPA^(key): /fuʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Agen)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uʁ

Noun

four m (plural fours)

1. oven
2. stove
3. flop

Derived terms

• 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 terms

• fournaise
• fourneau

Descendants

• Louisiana Creole: fou

Further reading

• “four”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Istriot

Etymology

From Latin foris, foras. Compare Italian fuori, Friulian fûr, Dalmatian fure, Venetan fora.

Adverb

four

1. out, outside

Preposition

four

1. out, outside

Middle English

Middle English numbers ^(edit)

	40
←  3	4	5  →
Cardinal: four     Ordinal: ferthe

Alternative forms

• fore, foure, fower, fowr
• feor, feouwer, feower (Laȝamon's Brut); fowwerr (Ormulum)
• faure, fawre (Northwest Midland); vour (Kent, West Midland)

Etymology

Inherited from Old English feōwer, from Proto-West Germanic *feuwar, from Proto-Germanic *fedwōr, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔu̯r/, /fuːr/

Numeral

four (postpositive foure)

1. four
   • 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

• ferthe
• fourtene
• fourty

Descendants

• English: four

  Geordie: fower

  West Riding: fower

• Scots: fower
• Yola: vour, voure, vowre

Norman

Alternative forms

• fou (Jersey)

Etymology

From Old French forn, from Latin furnus.

Noun

four m (plural fours)

1. (Guernsey) oven

Walloon

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fuːʀ/

Noun

four m (plural fours)

1. hay