four
Plural: fours
Noun
- The cardinal number equivalent to the sum of three and one.
- the cardinal number that is the sum of three and one
- a playing card or domino or die whose upward face shows four pips
- The digit or figure 4; an occurrence thereof.
- Anything measuring four units, as length.
- Four o'clock.
- A person who is four years old.
- 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.
- A power forward.
- Four-man sweep racing shell, with or without a coxswain.
- The shell itself.
- Four-man sweep racing shell, with or without a coxswain.
- The crew rowing in a four boat.
- Four-man sweep racing shell, with or without a coxswain.
- A regatta event for four boats.
- A four-pennyworth of spirits.
Adjective Satellite
- being one more than three
Num
- 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
- Do you have any more fours? I want to make this a little taller.
- I'll take the threes, fours and fives and go to the playground.
- Our four won both races.
- Playing ’FOUR’ might be simple, but it can open up crucial scoring lanes.
- The team bought a new four last season.
- There are four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter.
- We got third place in the varsity four.
Origin / Etymology
PIE word
*kʷetwóres
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, Welsh pedwar, Armenian չորս (čʻors), Lithuanian keturi, Albanian katër, Sanskrit चतुर् (catur).
Synonyms
4, four-spot, foursome, IV, iv, Little Joe, quadruplet, quartet, quatern, quaternary, quaternion, quaternity, tetrad
Scrabble Score: 7
four: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordfour: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
four: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary