four

[ fawr, fohr ]

/ fɔr, foʊr /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR four ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a cardinal number, three plus one.

a symbol of this number, 4 or IV or IIII.

a set of this many persons or things.

a playing card, die face, or half of a domino face with four pips.

fours, Jazz. alternate four-bar passages, as played in sequence by different soloists: with guitar and piano trading fours.

Automotive.

an automobile powered by a four-cylinder engine.
the engine itself.

adjective

amounting to four in number.

Nearby words

fountainhead, fountains abbey, fouquet, fouquier-tinville, fouqué, four, four bits, four corners, four corners of the earth, the, four flush, four freedoms

Idioms

on all fours. all fours(def 3).

Origin of four

before 1000; Middle English four, fower, Old English fēower; cognate with Old High German fior (German vier), Gothic fidwor; akin to Latin quattuor, Greek tésseres (Attic téttares)

Can be confused

for fore four

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for four

There are four photos there of representative presidential candidates.
Today’s GOP: Still Cool With Racist Pandering?|Michael Tomasky|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Four weeks after the injections, all 20 of the participants had developed the antibodies needed to stave off the infection.
The Race for the Ebola Vaccine|Abby Haglage|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
After four or five months of casual interaction, they realized they both had lost a young parent to cancer.
Everyone at This Dinner Party Has Lost Someone|Samantha Levine|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The injunction, she argued, only applies to these four plaintiffs—not to anyone else.
The Back Alley, Low Blow-Ridden Fight to Stop Gay Marriage in Florida Is Finally Over|Jay Michaelson|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST

Each CAP, also known as an “orbit,” consists on four aircraft.
Exclusive: U.S. Drone Fleet at ‘Breaking Point,’ Air Force Says|Dave Majumdar|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST
As I have already said, we had made four oars, but our boat was so small that only two were necessary.
The Coral Island|R. M. Ballantyne
In Saugor the marriage-post is often a four-sided wooden frame or a pillar with four pieces of wood suspended from it.
The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India - Volume IV of IV|R.V. Russell
No one of the members of these four classes is known to possess vibratile cilia.
Marvels of Pond-life|Henry J. Slack
The table was placed under a stairway, just room for the four of us.
The Greater Love|George T. McCarthy
There was no one left at home that day but a girl fourteen years old and her four younger brothers.
Once Upon A Time In Connecticut|Caroline Clifford Newton

British Dictionary definitions for four

four

/ (fɔː) /

noun

the cardinal number that is the sum of three and one

a numeral, 4, IV, etc, representing this number

something representing, represented by, or consisting of four units, such as a playing card with four symbols on it

Also called: four o'clock four hours after noon or midnight

cricket

a shot that crosses the boundary after hitting the ground
the four runs scored for such a shot

rowing

a racing shell propelled by four oarsmen pulling one oar each, with or without a cox
the crew of such a shell

determiner

amounting to fourfour thousand eggs; four times
(as pronoun)four are ready

Related forms

Related prefixes: quadri-, tetra-

Word Origin for four

Old English fēower; related to Old Frisian fiūwer, Old Norse fjōrir, Old High German fior, Latin quattuor, Greek tessares, Sanskrit catur

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Idioms and Phrases with four

four

In addition to the idioms beginning with four

four corners of the earth, the

also see:

between you and me and (the four walls)
on all fours