Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The cardinal number equal to 3 + 1.
  • noun The fourth in a set or sequence.
  • noun Something having four parts, units, or members, such as a musical quartet or a four-cylinder engine.
  • idiom (all fours) All four limbs of an animal or person.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In cricket, a boundary; also, a ball hit by the batsman, which reaches the boundary, thus scoring four runs. See fourer.
  • One more than three; twice two: a cardinal numeral: as, four legs; four wheels.
  • noun A number, twice two or the sum of three and one; the number of the fingers of one hand, without the thumb.
  • noun A symbol representing this number, as 4, IV, or iv.
  • noun A four-oared boat; the crew of a four-oared boat.
  • noun A playing-card with four pips or spots on it.
  • noun In dice or dominoes, the face of a piece showing four spots.
  • noun plural In the game of poker, a hand containing four cards of the same denomination, and ranking between a full and a straight flush.
  • noun A team of four horses harnessed together to draw a coach or other vehicle: as, a coach and four; a well-matched four.
  • noun plural Same as fourings.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective One more than three; twice two.
  • noun The sum of four units; four units or objects.
  • noun A symbol representing four units, as 4 or iv.
  • noun Four things of the same kind, esp. four horses.
  • noun See All fours, in the Vocabulary.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun cardinal A numerical value equal to 4; the number after three and before five; two plus two. This many dots (••••)
  • noun Describing a set or group with four components.
  • noun countable The digit or figure 4; an occurrence thereof.
  • noun countable Anything measuring four units, as length.
  • noun A person who is fours years old.
  • noun cricket, countable An event whereby a batsman hits a ball which bounces on the ground before passing over a boundary in the air, 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.
  • noun rowing Quadruple sculls.
  • noun obsolete A four-pennyworth of spirits.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a playing card or domino or die whose upward face shows four pips
  • adjective being one more than three
  • noun the cardinal number that is the sum of three and one

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English fēower; see kwetwer- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English fower, from Old English fēower, from Proto-Germanic *fedwōr, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres. Cognate with German vier, Gothic 𐍆𐌹𐌳𐍅𐍉𐍂 (fidwor), Ancient Greek τέσσαρες (tessares), Latin quattuor (French quatre, Portuguese quatro), Old Norse fjórir (Danish fire), Russian четыре (četýre), Sanskrit चतुर् (catur).

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word four.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Means "oven" in French.

    July 13, 2009