four
[fɔː]number, noun
four is spelled F-O-U-R: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 339 times per million words in written English, the 274th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a number, four means “A numerical value equal to 4; the number following three and preceding five” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in four?
| Letters | 4: F-O-U-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 339 times per million words; the 274th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is four?
Four appears 339 times per million words in written English, the 274th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce four?
- /foɹ/
- [foːɾ]
- UK [fɔː]
Four has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-four.ogg, En-us-ne-four.ogg, En-au-four.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with four
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with four?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as four.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: furo, rouf.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of four
- fower
- fouh
- fours plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does four mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
number
- 1
A numerical value equal to 4; the number following three and preceding five.
There are four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter.
- 2
Describing a set or group with four elements.
noun
- 1
The digit or figure 4; an occurrence thereof.
- 2
Anything measuring four units, as length.
Do you have any more fours? I want to make this a little taller.
- 3
Four o'clock.
- 4
A person who is four years old.
I'll take the threes, fours and fives and go to the playground.
- 5
An event in which the batsmen run four times between the wickets or, more often, a batsman hits a ball which bounces on the ground before passing over a boundary, resulting in an award of 4 runs for the batting team. If the ball does not bounce before passing over the boundary, a six is awarded instead.
- 6
A power forward.
- 7
The shell itself.
The team bought a new four last season.
- 8
The crew rowing in a four boat.
Our four won both races.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Four in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does four come from?
From Middle English four, from Old English fēower, from Proto-West Germanic *feuwar, from Proto-Germanic *fedwōr, from previous pre-Grimm *petwṓr, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwṓr, the neuter form of *kʷetwóres. Doublet of cuatro and quatre.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).