fourth
Noun pluralfourths
Pluralfourths
Formsfourths, fourthing, fourthed
- 1Coming after the third in a series; the ordinal form of the number four.
The fourth chapter introduces the main conflict of the novel.
Their fourth attempt finally succeeded after three earlier failures.
UsageNot the same as forth, meaning forward (go forth): fourth keeps the u of four.
- 2Whoever or whatever holds the position right after the third in a sequence or ranking.
The first three speakers were dull, but the fourth woke the audience up.
Of the eight finalists, the fourth to perform drew the loudest cheers of the night.
UsageOften the fourth to + verb (the fourth to arrive). A fourth can also mean the person who makes a group four.
Note
A 1978 classified ad in Gay Community News seeks "the company of a fourth" for a shared apartment. Read this way, a fourth is not a ranking but the missing person who turns three into four, and the context tells you what kind of group it is.
- 3Short for the Fourth of July, the US national holiday marking the country's independence; usually with the.
Half the office takes the whole week off around the Fourth.
My uncle has hosted the family barbecue on the Fourth for twenty years.
UsageWritten with a capital F, usually after the: on the Fourth, over the Fourth, but Happy Fourth. For an ordinary date, use lowercase: the fourth of May.
- 4Any of the four equal parts into which something can be divided.
Mix in a fourth of the flour, then add the eggs.
He owns a fourth of the company along with three partners.
UsageUsually a fourth of something (a fourth of the flour) or three fourths. A quarter means the same and is more widely used.
Similarquarter
Less common meanings
- 5The fourth gear in a transmission or gearbox, one gear above third.
He dropped from fourth into third to climb the hill.
Once on the open road, she shifted up into fourth and relaxed.
UsageUsually with no article: in fourth, shift into fourth, or in fourth gear.
- 6A musical interval spanning four degrees of the diatonic scale, such as C to F.
The melody leaps up a fourth before settling back down.
He tuned the strings a fourth apart.
UsageUsually a fourth or a perfect fourth: two notes are a fourth apart, or one is a fourth above the other.
Note
In harmony, the fourth most often means the perfect fourth, five semitones wide, as from C up to F. It sounds consonant, yet classical harmony treats it as a dissonance when it sits above the bass. It pairs naturally with the fifth: in Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" (1984), a line naming the fourth and the fifth refers to the chords on those degrees, F and G in the song's key of C. Count the notes inclusively, C D E F, and you have the name.
- 7To voice agreement with a proposal that three people have already supported in turn.
Three people had already backed the pizza order, so I raised my hand and said I'd fourth it.
Once the idea was thirded, a colleague jumped in to fourth it.
UsageA joke on I second that: once others have seconded and thirded an idea, you say I fourth that.
Oppositeoppose
Note
A joke built on meeting procedure: once a motion could be seconded, writers kept counting to show a crowd piling on. Hunt's Yachting Magazine in 1854 has a resolution "thirded, fourthed, fifthed, and sixthed," and Talbot Baines Reed's school story of 1892 plays the same game.
- 8A unit equal to one sixtieth of a third (or tierce), used in the old system of dividing degrees and hours into sixtieths.
Note
Old astronomy divided degrees and hours by sixty again and again: minute, second, third, fourth. A fourth is therefore one part in 60⁴ of the whole. John David North's The Fontana History of Astronomy and Cosmology (1994) observes how cumbersome the series becomes at this depth, which helps explain why the word is now rare.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Historical astronomy used successive sixtieth subdivisions of degrees and hours, called minutes, seconds, thirds, and fourths. en.wikipedia.org
- A fourth equals 60⁻⁴ of the starting degree or hour; this follows mathematically from four successive divisions by sixty. en.wikipedia.org
- John David North wrote The Fontana History of Astronomy and Cosmology, published in 1994. archive.org
- North describes continuing the sequence through thirds and fourths as cumbersome; Wiktionary attributes the passage to page xxi of the 1994 book. en.wiktionary.org
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Practice
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Origin
Fourth comes from Middle English fourthe, an alteration (influenced by 'four') of ferthe, from Old English fēorþa, going back to Proto-Germanic. It is essentially 'four' plus the ordinal suffix '-th', with cognates such as Dutch vierde, German vierte, Danish fjerde, and Icelandic fjórði.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Fourth descends from Middle English fourthe, altered under the influence of four from ferthe, with Old English fēorþa and ultimately Proto-Germanic ancestry. en.wiktionary.org
- The formation is equivalent to four plus an ordinal suffix. en.wiktionary.org
- Dutch vierde, German vierte, Danish fjerde, and Icelandic fjórði are cognates. en.wiktionary.org