forty

UK/ˈfɔːti/US/ˈfoɹti/

nounA1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — four sits at #178neutral

Other forms: forties

Forty is four times ten. The number that famously has no u in it.

That spelling is the trap, since four, fourth and fourteen all keep the u and forty does not, and fourty is one of the most common misspellings in English. Forty winks means a short nap. Life begins at forty is the standard consolation offered at the birthday. In the Bible almost every long period is forty days or forty years, which is a way of saying a great many.

Definitions of forty

1nounfortyThe number equal to four times ten.A1
“There were forty applicants for the post.”

Where it comes from

Middle English
fourty
English, today
forty

From Middle English fourty. From Middle English fourty, forty, from Old English fēowertiġ, ultimately from Proto-Germanic fedwōr tigiwiz (“forty”). by surface analysis, four + -ty.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

← Vocabulary

forty

UK/ˈfɔːti/US/ˈfoɹti/

nounA1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — four sits at #178neutral

Other forms: forties

Forty is four times ten. The number that famously has no u in it.

Definitions of forty

1nounfortyThe number equal to four times ten.A1
“There were forty applicants for the post.”

Where it comes from

Middle English
fourty
English, today
forty

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA