Etimology
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).
numeral
four
A numerical value equal to 4; the number after three and before five; two plus two. This many dots (••••)
Describing a set or group with four elements.
Examples
There are four seasons: winter, spring, summer and autumn.
Venters began to count them—one—two—three—four—on up to sixteen.
Related words
related terms
fourth
noun
four (countable and uncountable, plural fours)
(countable) The digit or figure 4; an occurrence thereof.
(countable) Anything measuring four units, as length.
Four o'clock.
A person who is four years old.
(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.
(basketball, countable) A power forward.
(rowing) Four-man sweep racing shell, with or without a coxswain.
(obsolete) A four-pennyworth of spirits.
Examples
Do you have any more fours? I want to make this a little taller.
Letters to Sheffield are despatched every morning at six, and arrive every afternoon at ten minutes past four.
Frederick, I presume, at this late hour of four, may be snatching a morsel of dinner; […]
The larger ships picked up the low lying atoll on their radar about four in the morning at distances from 16 to 26 miles.
I'll take the threes, fours and fives and go to the playground.
The team bought a new four last season.
Our four won both races.
We got third place in the varsity four.
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.