forty

forty — number

1. the whole amount or quantity equal to four times ten, written as the digits 4 an

1.numberA1
Definition

the whole amount or quantity equal to four times ten, written as the digits 4 and 0

Example

Owen invited forty guests to his wedding reception.

forty + plural noun (guests)

The library added forty new books to the children's section.

Common collocations
  • forty years old
  • forty percent
  • forty miles per hour
  • forty dollars

Grammar Patterns

forty + [plural noun]

forty + [unit of measurement]

Usage Note

Learners often confuse forty and fourteen when listening. Forty ends with the -ee sound /iː/, while fourteen has a strong -teen ending /tiːn/ with stress on the last syllable.

Common Mistakes

There are fourty students in the class.
There are forty students in the class.
The spelling is forty, not fourty (no 'u' after 'for').
He is fortyteen years old.
He is forty years old.
'Fortyteen' is not a word; use 'forty' alone for age.

forty — noun

Word family

  • fortieth
    numberA2
  • forties
    nounA2

Synonym discussion

Sense: number/1

Forty (40), fourteen (14), and fourth (4th) are easily confused by learners because of their similar sounds and spellings. Forty refers to the exact quantity of 40 items (forty students). Fourteen is ten fewer — learners often mishear 'forty' as 'fourteen' in spoken English because both end with the -ty or -teen sound. The key difference is stress: fourteen has stress on the last syllable (four-TEEN) while forty has stress on the first syllable (FOR-ty). Fourth is an ordinal — it means number 4 in a sequence, not a quantity at all. For example: 'She is forty years old' (age 40) vs. 'She is fourteen years old' (age 14) vs. 'She finished fourth in the race' (position 4).

forty ↗fourteen ↗fourth ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • forty percent
  • forty dollars
  • forty years
  • forty miles

Phrases

  • in one's forties
  • the forties

Etymology

Old EnglishMiddle EnglishEnglish

Forty comes from Old English feowertig, a combination of feower (four) and tig (a group of ten). This structure is shared with other Germanic languages like German vierzig. By Middle English the word was often written fourty, but during the Modern English period the 'u' dropped out, giving the spelling forty that we use today.