four

 
Pronunciation: /fɔː/

cardinal number

  • equivalent to the product of two and two; one more than three, or six less than ten; 4: Francesca’s got four brothers it took four of them to lift it a four-bedroom house (Roman numeral: iv or IV, archaic iiii or IIII)
  • a group or unit of four people or things: the girls walked in pairs or fours
  • four years old: I began to read at four
  • four o’clock: it’s half past four
  • Cricket a hit that reaches the boundary after first striking the ground, scoring four runs: he hit a six and seven fours
  • a size of garment or other merchandise denoted by four.
  • a playing card or domino with four pips.
  • a four-oared rowing boat or its crew: the British women’s coxed four

Phrases

the four freedoms

the four essential human freedoms as proclaimed in a speech to Congress by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

four noble truths

the four central beliefs containing the essence of Buddhist teaching. See Buddhism.

Origin:

Old English fēower, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch and German vier, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin quattuor and Greek tessares