Four

How to spell four

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce four

What does four mean?

1. otherThe cardinal number equal to three plus one, written as 4.

Four in a sentence

• The table in the corner seats four people comfortably.

• Her flight departs at four o'clock in the afternoon.

Where does four come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a very old native English word, descending from the Old English feower, which already meant the number four. It belongs to a deep family of Germanic words for the same number, including the Old Norse fjorir, the Dutch vier, and the German vier, all reaching back to a common Proto-Germanic root. Beyond Germanic, scholars connect it to the Proto-Indo-European root that also gave Latin quattuor and Greek tessares, the ancestors of words like 'quart' and 'quadrant'. The puzzling part for modern spellers is the 'u', which sits silent before the 'r'; it reflects older pronunciations and the influence of related spellings rather than any sound we make today. That silent 'u' is also what visually separates 'four' the number from its homophones 'for' and 'fore', which is exactly the detail to fix in memory.

How the word is built

• four (whole word; from Old English feower 'four', no separable affixes)

Words that sound like four

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• for: Used to indicate purpose, recipient, duration, or exchange.
• fore: Situated at or towards the front, especially of a ship.