FOURTH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does fourth mean? 

• FOURTH (noun)
  The noun FOURTH has 3 senses:

1. following the third position; number four in a countable series

2. one of four equal parts

3. the musical interval between one note and another four notes away from it

  Familiarity information: FOURTH used as a noun is uncommon.

• FOURTH (adjective)
  The adjective FOURTH has 1 sense:

1. coming next after the third and just before the fifth in position or time or degree or magnitude

  Familiarity information: FOURTH used as an adjective is very rare.

• FOURTH (adverb)
  The adverb FOURTH has 1 sense:

1. in the fourth place

  Familiarity information: FOURTH used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FOURTH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Following the third position; number four in a countable series

Classified under:

Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas

Hypernyms ("fourth" is a kind of...):

rank (relative status)

Sense 2

Meaning:

One of four equal parts

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

fourth; fourth part; one-fourth; one-quarter; quarter; quartern; twenty-five percent

Context example:

a quarter of a pound

Hypernyms ("fourth" is a kind of...):

common fraction; simple fraction (the quotient of two integers)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The musical interval between one note and another four notes away from it

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("fourth" is a kind of...):

interval; musical interval (the difference in pitch between two notes)

• FOURTH (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Coming next after the third and just before the fifth in position or time or degree or magnitude

Synonyms:

4th; fourth; quaternary

Context example:

the quaternary period of geologic time extends from the end of the tertiary period to the present

Similar:

ordinal (being or denoting a numerical order in a series)

• FOURTH (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

In the fourth place

Synonyms:

fourth; fourthly

Context example:

fourthly, you must pay the rent on the first of the month

Pertainym:

fourth (coming next after the third and just before the fifth in position or time or degree or magnitude)

 Context examples 

Furthermore, you have a crowd of happy little planets gathering in your fourth house of home to help make your home-related dreams come true.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

The object has since been named ULX-4 because it is the fourth ULX identified in this galaxy.

(NASA Satellite Spots a Mystery That's Gone in a Flash, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Half the experiments lasting 10 years or more found a change in the total number of plant species, and nearly three-fourths found changes in the types of species.

(Environmental change is triggering an identity switch in grasslands, National Science Foundation)

The fourth was too pale, and she called him “Wallface.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The next day I sailed to another island, and thence to a third and fourth, sometimes using my sail, and sometimes my paddles.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

"Adventure," one-fourth as long, had brought him twice as much from The Millennium.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Upon the fourth day there appeared a long telegram from Paris which seemed to solve the whole question.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The researchers determined that borrelidin binding also causes a change to the structure of the enzyme that creates a fourth spot for borrelidin attachment.

(Scientists Discover Antibiotic Mechanism, NIH)

A fourth control group received the current standard of care, with no preventive drugs.

(Drug Prevents Malaria in High-Risk Region, NIH)

One of three pairs in the fourth group (or group D) of human chromosomes according to the current classification for humans.

(Chromosome 13, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)