forty

[fawr-tee]

noun

plural

forties 

1. a cardinal number, ten times four.

2. a symbol for this number, as 40 or XL or XXXX.

3. a set of this many persons or things.

4. 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.

adjective

1. amounting to 40 in number.

forty

/ ˈfɔːtɪ /

noun

1. the cardinal number that is the product of ten and four See also number

2. a numeral, 40, XL, etc, representing this number

3. something representing, represented by, or consisting of 40 units

determiner

1. 1. amounting to forty

      forty thieves

   2. ( as pronoun )

      there were forty in the herd

Word History and Origins

Origin of forty¹

before 950; Middle English fourti, Old English fēowertig (cognate with Old Frisian fiuwertich, Old High German fiorzug, German vierzig ). See four, -ty ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of forty¹

Old English fēowertig

Example Sentences

She’s even gone down to working only forty hours a week instead of her usual sixty.

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It’s hard for humans to cut through bamboo with an ax, but the panda peels and eats a single bamboo shoot in forty seconds!

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I was also forty years old—practically a spinster by that era’s standards.

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In Fukushima prefecture, the first tsunami wave reached the Daiichi nuclear plant at 3:27 P.M., forty minutes after the earthquake.

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Mummies of forty other pharaohs and royals were found there too, and they were put into Egyptian museums.

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