fourfold
Americanadjective
-
comprising four parts or members.
-
four times as great or as much.
adverb
adjective
-
equal to or having four times as many or as much
-
composed of four parts
adverb
Etymology
Origin of fourfold
before 1000; Middle English foure fald, Old English feowerfealdum. See four, -fold
Explanation
If your salary increases fourfold when you get a new job, it means that your income is four times larger than it used to be. Use the adjective fourfold when something is four times as big, or when it's been multiplied by four. You're almost always going to see fourfold accompanied by the word increase. For example, making class sizes smaller and school days longer might result in a fourfold increase in test scores. Or sticking to your pledge of not buying fancy coffee drinks could lead to a fourfold increase in available pocket change each week.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
No sensors detecting MMA in the air were operational on May 21, as the crisis first began to unfold.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 4, 2026
As a result, the genome began to unfold, but not evenly.
From Science Daily • Mar. 31, 2026
The Journal ranked the 124 brackets in the pool based on the 32,768 possible ways for the tournament to unfold.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 24, 2026
George Russell led Kimi Antonelli to a Mercedes one-two in the only practice session at the Chinese Grand Prix before the sprint weekend starts to unfold.
From BBC • Mar. 13, 2026
Everything seemed to unfold in a blur after that.
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
