four

• Four, FOUR

Borrowed from English four.

• IPA^(key): [ˈfoa], like lower (non-rhotic)^[1]

four

1. (international standards) NATO & ICAO radiotelephony clear code (spelling-alphabet name) for the digit 4.

   Synonym: kartefour (ITU/IMO)

From Middle English four, from Old English fēower, from Proto-West Germanic *feuwar, from Proto-Germanic *fedwōr, from previous pre-Grimm *petwṓr, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwṓr, the neuter form of *kʷetwóres. Doublet of cuatro and quatre.

Cognates include Scots fower, Saterland Frisian fjauer, West Frisian fjouwer, Dutch vier, German Low German veer, German vier, Norwegian Bokmål and Danish fire, Swedish fyra, Gothic 𐍆𐌹𐌳𐍅𐍉𐍂 (fidwōr) and, more distantly, Latin quattuor (whence Spanish cuatro, French quatre), Ancient Greek τέσσαρες (téssares), Irish ceathair, Armenian չորս (čʻors), Lithuanian keturi, Albanian katër, Sanskrit चतुर् (catur).

• Homophones: fore, foure

enPR: fōr (without the horse–hoarse merger)

• IPA^(key): /fo(ː)r/ (Scotland)
• IPA^(key): /foːɾ/ (Indic, rhotic)
• IPA^(key): /fo(ː)ɹ/ (US, rhotic)

  • Audio (US, without the horse–hoarse merger):

    (file)

• IPA^(key): /foə/ (US, non-rhotic)

enPR: fō (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger but with the dough–door merger)

• Homophones: foe, faux
• IPA^(key): /foʊ/ (African-American Vernacular)
• IPA^(key): /foː/ (Indic)

enPR: fôr (rhotic, horse–hoarse merger)

• Homophone: for
• IPA^(key): /foɹ/ (General American)

  • Audio (US, horse–hoarse merger):

    (file)

enPR: fô (non-rhotic, horse–hoarse merger)

• Homophones: for, faugh
• IPA^(key): /fɔː/ (Received Pronunciation)
• IPA^(key): /foː/ (Standard Southern British, General Australian, New Zealand)

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

four

1. A numerical value equal to 4; the number after three and before five; two plus two. This many dots (••••)

   There are four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter.

   • 1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 8, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC:

     Venters began to count them—one—two—three—four—on up to sixteen.

   • 2019 May 2, Nina Avramova, “When you should use self-help programs and when to skip them”, in CNN‎^[3]:

     Redding’s study asked four psychologists with expertise in anxiety and depressive disorders to rate each self-help book on five criteria: […]

2. Describing a set or group with four elements.

• fourth
• farthing

• Table of cardinal numbers 0 to 9 in various languages
• Last: three, 3
• Next: five, 5

four (countable and uncountable, plural fours)

1. (countable) The digit or figure 4; an occurrence thereof.
2. (countable) Anything measuring four units, as length.

   Do you have any more fours? I want to make this a little taller.

3. Four o'clock.
   • 1828, Pigot and Co.'s National Commercial Directory for 1828-9, Comprising a Directory of the Merchants, Bankers, Professional Gentleman [...] in the Counties of Cheshire, Cumberland [...]‎^[4], London, Manchester: J. Pigot & Co., page 767:

     Letters to Sheffield are despatched every morning at six, and arrive every afternoon at ten minutes past four.

   • 1865, Thomas Carlyle, chapter IX, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume VI, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC:

     Frederick, I presume, at this late hour of four, may be snatching a morsel of dinner; […]

   • 1972, George Carroll Dyer, chapter XVII, in The Amphibians Came to Conquer: The Story of Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner‎^[5], volume 2, U.S. Marine Corps, →OL, page 657:

     The larger ships picked up the low lying atoll on their radar about four in the morning at distances from 16 to 26 miles.

4. A person who is four years old.

   I'll take the threes, fours and fives and go to the playground.

5. (cricket, countable) An event in which the batsmen run four times between the wickets or, more often, a batsman hits a ball which bounces on the ground before passing over a boundary, resulting in an award of 4 runs for the batting team. If the ball does not bounce before passing over the boundary, a six is awarded instead.
6. (basketball, countable) A power forward.
7. (rowing) Four-man sweep racing shell, with or without a coxswain.
   1. The shell itself.

      The team bought a new four last season.

   2. The crew rowing in a four boat.

      Our four won both races.

   3. (colloquial) A regatta event for four boats.

      We got third place in the varsity four.

8. (obsolete) A four-pennyworth of spirits.
   • 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, section IV:

     I was a-strollin' down, thinkin' between ourselves how uncommon handy a four of gin hot would be, when suddenly the glint of a light caught my eye in the window of that same house.

• (numeral): rouf (back slang)

English terms starting with “four”

• Rufo, furo, rouf, rufo-, uORF

Inherited from Middle French four, from Old French four, forz, forn, from Latin furnus, from Proto-Italic *fornos, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰr̥-nós, from *gʷʰer- (“warm, hot”).

• IPA^(key): /fuʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uʁ

four m (plural fours)

1. oven
2. stove
3. flop

• fournaise
• fourneau

• Louisiana Creole: fou

• “four”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From Latin foris, foras. Compare Italian fuori, Friulian fûr, Dalmatian fure, Venetan fora.

four

1. out, outside

four

1. out, outside

• fore, feour, fower, fowwre, foure, fowr, vour

From Old English feōwer.

• IPA^(key): /fɔu̯r/, /fuːr/^[1]
• (Early Middle English) IPA^(key): /ˈføːwər/

four

1. four^[2]
   • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎^[6], published c. 1410, Apocalips 6:8, page 119r, column 1; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:

     ⁊ lo a pale hoꝛs .· and þe name was deþ to him þat ſat on hym and helle ſuede him / and power was ȝouen to him on foure partis of þe erþe .· to ſle with ſwerd / ⁊ wiþ hungur / ⁊ wiþ deþ / ⁊ wiþ beeſtis of þe erþe

     And lo! A pale horse, and the name was Death for who that sat on him, and hell trailed him. And power was given to him over four parts of the earth, to slay with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the earth's creatures.

• ferthe
• fourtene
• fourty

• English: four
• English: (West Yorkshire) fower
• Geordie English: fower
• Scots: fower
• Yola: vour, voure, vowre

• fou (Jersey)

From Old French forn, from Latin furnus.

four m (plural fours)

1. (Guernsey) oven

• IPA^(key): /fuːʀ/

four m (plural fours)

1. hay