Forth or fourth?
forth is a prefix meaning “forth, forward, away”; fourth is a noun meaning “The person or thing in the fourth position”. They sound the same (/fɔːθ/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) fourth is about 2.7 times as common as forth.
What is the difference between forth and fourth?
| forth | fourth | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adverb, preposition, prefix | adjective, noun, verb |
| Meaning | forth, forward, away | The ordinal form of the number four The person or thing in the fourth position USA quarter, one of four equal parts of a whole |
| Example | say forth | none recorded |
| Forms | none | fourths |
| Pronunciation | /fɔːθ/ /foːθ/ /fɔɹθ/ | /fɔːθ/ /fɔɹθ/ /fo(ː)ɹθ/ |
| In writing | 25 times per million words | 68 times per million words |
Sources: forth and fourth in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of forth and fourth
forth
- 1
forth, forward, away
fourth
- 1
The ordinal form of the number four
- 2
The person or thing in the fourth position
- 3
informalTo agree with a proposition or statement after it has already been thirded
- 4
USA quarter, one of four equal parts of a whole
- 5
The fourth gear of an engine
- 6
A musical interval which spans four degrees of the diatonic scale, for example C to F (C D E F)
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, forth or fourth?
forth appears 25 times per million words; fourth 68 times per million words.
forth 25 times per million wordsfourth 68 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search forth vs fourth?
“forth vs fourth” is searched about 590 times a month on Google and 70 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“fourth vs forth”, “forth or fourth”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.