forties

1. 1
   nounplural

   The decade of a person's life spanning the ages of 40 through 49.

   He changed careers in his early forties and never looked back.

   By her late forties she had three children in college.

   Note

   Age takes a possessive where the calendar takes an article: in their forties, by her late forties, in his early forties. Early and late split the ten years, and the word pairs easily with its neighbors. Loren Balhorn, writing in Jacobin Magazine in 2017, describes 'members in their forties and fifties'. Like the calendar decade, it has no singular in this meaning.

2. 2
   nounplural

   A decade made up of the years ending in 40 through 49, such as the 1840s or 1940s.

   Rationing shaped daily life throughout the forties.

   The novel is set in the forties, against the backdrop of postwar recovery.

   Note

   A plural-only noun that normally takes the: in the forties, during the forties. In figures it is written 40s or '40s, and the apostrophe stands in for the century digits that have been dropped. The century itself is left to context, so the forties of a Victorian novel and of a wartime memoir are a hundred years apart.

3. 3
   nounplural

   A value falling between 40 and 49, used when reporting figures such as temperatures or rates.

   Overnight lows settled into the forties across the valley.

   Voter turnout languished in the forties for the third election running.

   Note

   Weather reports and statistics use it for rough readings. In the forties means somewhere from 40 to 49 without committing to a figure. With temperature the scale matters enormously. Forties Fahrenheit calls for a coat, and forties Celsius calls for shade, so when the scale is not obvious, name it.

4. 4
   nounslangUS

   Plural of forty.

   The spreadsheet column was full of forties and fifties.

   She grouped the marbles into forties for the count.

   Note

   Plurals of a number usually count values or groups. The singular, though, also has a US slang meaning, a forty-ounce bottle of beer, so forties can name those bottles too. One meaning of forty never takes this plural: the rare adjective for something fort-like has no plural form, so forties never means 'fort-like things'.

5. 5
   adjective

   Belonging to or recalling the years 41 through 50 of a century, especially the 1940s.

   The film captured a distinctly forties mood in its sets and music.

   He collects forties radios and old gramophones.

   Note

   An adjective made from the decade noun and placed directly before what it describes: forties aircraft, forties radios, a forties mood. It does not compare, because nothing is more forties than something else. Unless context says otherwise it points to the 1940s, so a forties film recalls that era's style, not the 1840s.

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