4 vs 4th, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“4” is a preposition and “4th” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#159
“4” frequency rank: #2,710
“4th” frequency rank: 2869
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	4	4th
Definition	Abbreviation of for.	Abbreviation of fourth.

Letter map: 4 vs 4th

Shared letters muted; letters that set 4 and 4th apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

1 ch

3 ch

4th

Grammar separator: 4 vs 4th

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: 4 is apreposition and 4thanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “4” sits inside “4th”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2869, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

4 is recorded at frequency rank #159, classified as aprep. 4th is at rank #2,710, tagged as anadj.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 2869, this pair ranks #523,795 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of 4 vs 4th

Shared letters: none. Private to "4": -. Private to "4th": ht.

"4" · 0 letters · shape · "4th" · 2 letters · shape CC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "4" for "4th" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "4" is a preposition and "4th" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "4" vs "4th" - which ranks higher?

"4" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #159 in our English list, against #2,710 for "4th". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

You've compared "4" and "4th". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "4" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "4th" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #523,795 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"4" and "4th" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "4B vs 4th". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #523,795 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.