forty-eight

American  

[fawr-tee-eyt] / ˈfɔr tiˈeɪt /

noun

1. a cardinal number, 40 plus 8.

2. a symbol for this number, such as 48 or XLVIII.

3. a set of 48 persons or things.

   Of the two parties that reserved a private room tonight, the forty-eight is the larger, so put them in the east dining room just off the lounge.

4. Informal. the forty-eight, the conterminous United States.

   Crossing the border into Alberta, Canada, was the first time he’d ventured beyond the forty-eight.

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adjective

1. amounting to 48 in number.

   So far, forty-eight students have registered for soccer.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

forty-eight

There are forty-eight teams in this year’s World Cup.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026

"The current plan for many communities is... they might keep the blackout going for longer, beyond the original forty-eight hours, or keep their subreddits restricted so that nobody can post," they said.

From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2023

Four hundred forty-eight days later, after the coronavirus pandemic pushed several lower-division college football seasons into spring, Puget Sound on Saturday became one of 16 Division III teams to kick off.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 11, 2021

For fully forty-eight hours, the fires raged and burned everything in its path and it left nothing but ashes and burned safes and trunks and the like where once stood beautiful homes and business houses.

From Slate ● Oct. 23, 2019

The clock said four forty-eight when the clerk came back and sat down without even looking her way.

From "The Great Gilly Hopkins" by Katherine Paterson