forty
a cardinal number, ten times four.
a symbol for this number, as 40 or XL or XXXX.
a set of this many persons or things.
forties, the numbers, years, degrees, or the like, from 40 through 49, as in referring to numbered streets, indicating the years of a lifetime or of a century, or degrees of temperature: His office is in the West Forties. Her parents are in their forties. The temperature will be in the forties.
amounting to 40 in number.
Origin of forty
1Words Nearby forty
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use forty in a sentence
forty minutes later he says, ‘I think she may have chest injuries now.’
Harry’s Daddy, and Diana’s ‘Murder’: Royal Rumors In a New Play | Tom Sykes | January 4, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTI was already over forty, had hardly a nickel in my pocket and this was the biggest break in my life.
The Story Behind Lee Marvin’s Liberty Valance Smile | Robert Ward | January 3, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTAlmost forty years later, it seems unlikely this will ever be the case.
Juiciest ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Rumors (and Some Debunked Ones) | Rich Goldstein | January 3, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTforty-two years after its debut, The Godfather casts a long shadow over American cinema.
We were on it for forty minutes of the film, a considerable part of our schedule.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days | David Freeman | December 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
Botanists have enumerated between forty and fifty varieties of the tobacco plant who class them all among the narcotic poisons.
Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce | E. R. Billings.It succeeds best in a deep rich loam in a climate ranging from forty to fifty degrees of latitude.
Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce | E. R. Billings.After about the forty-fifth year it becomes gradually less; after seventy-five years it is about one-half the amount given.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell ToddIt was Wednesday night; over forty men sat down to the house-dinner at the Pandemonium Club.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3) | Charles James WillsThe moon rose on a terrified mob trudging or riding the forty miles of road between Meerut and the Mogul capital.
The Red Year | Louis Tracy
British Dictionary definitions for forty
/ (ˈfɔːtɪ) /
the cardinal number that is the product of ten and four: See also number (def. 1)
a numeral, 40, XL, etc, representing this number
something representing, represented by, or consisting of 40 units
amounting to forty: forty thieves
(as pronoun): there were forty in the herd
Origin of forty
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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