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forty

[fawr-tee]

noun

a cardinal number, ten times four.

a symbol for this number, as 40 or XL or XXXX.

a set of this many persons or things.

forties, the numbers, years, degrees, or the like, from 40 through 49, as in referring to numbered streets, indicating the years of a lifetime or of a century, or degrees of temperature: His office is in the West Forties. Her parents are in their forties. The temperature will be in the forties.

adjective

amounting to 40 in number.

:10

:09

:08

:07

:06

:05

:04

:03

:02

:01

Forty is always a great word to know.

So is callithumpian. Does it mean:

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.

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Origin:
before 950; Middle English fourti, Old English fēowertig (cognate with Old Frisian fiuwertich, Old High German fiorzug, German vierzig). See four, -ty¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To forty

Example Sentences

Forty years ago, students went to college ready to march and protest their way to a more progressive society.

Forty years ago the trouble there amounted to a territorial dispute between two fairly secular tribes.

Forty percent of the world's population has no way to properly dispose of their own waste.

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Forty years ago, students went to college ready to march and protest their way to a more progressive society.

Forty years ago the trouble there amounted to a territorial dispute between two fairly secular tribes.

Forty percent of the world's population has no way to properly dispose of their own waste.

Forty years ago this month the lunar surface reverberated with life for the first time.

The revolution in medicine that spans those forty years in nearly exponential ways, and continues going forward.

Forty years ago, researchers developed a programming language that would become a brilliant educational tool.

Forty years ago, instantaneous global communication was possible but costly, and restricted to governments and large corporations.

First, the basket of goods is completely different now than it was forty years ago so it is not comparable.

Forty percent of the continent's fish species are at risk of extinction.

Forty people hurt their ankles, almost half of them while landing after a jump.

Forty years ago social psychologists tried to figure out what made prejudiced people tick.

Forty years later, researchers practically wrote off isolating single-layer graphene.

Forty years as an educator have taught me there is a great difference between schooling and education.

Forty boulders, known as grandfather rocks, greet visitors around the museum.

All that is needed is the technology to make a single nanotube that is forty megameters long.

Forty years after the moon landing, there are some out there who adamantly believe that the whole thing was a big hoax.

Gaddafi has kept an all-female cadre of bodyguards by his side for the past forty years.

Forty states now allow citizens to carry concealed weapons.

Forty years later, there seems to be no cure in sight.

Forty more units continue to operate across the nation.

Too late for surviving merchant seamen who lost forty years of health benefits, education, or insurance benefits.

The all-time best score is juuuust under forty minutes.

The planet seemed to be bigger, richer, more resilient forty years ago.

Forty percent registered some level of alcohol on the meters.

Forty thousand pounds of silver encrusted the sanctuary.

Six days later, another foot in a sneaker had washed up, this time forty miles south.

Hence, forty years ago, states began changing the laws.

Forty years of testing confirms that there are no surprises.

The idea of falsifiability is simply a philosophical position taken about forty years ago.

The big corporation has held the patent for more than forty hears and has made billions of dollars.

Forty men took part in a four-week training program.

Forty years in therapy, she opines, did him no good at all.

The nature of corporate finance changed dramatically in the last forty years.

Forty percent of the course is on a joint-saving dirt road that wends through parkland.

And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights".

He has worked at the same company for forty plus years, and is now retiring.

Forty years on, she is more than emblematic, she is iconic.

Forty years on, both countries appear to be nearing an agreement to solve the insoluble-by swapping territory.

Forty thousand sea turtles come up onto the beach to lay their eggs.

In the last forty years they haven't committed one dime to prediction.

Just forty miles from where forest and surf collide, icy mountain peaks pierce the sky.

But, in the real world, a lot of things are a lot different from the way they were forty years ago.

Forty per cent of the arable land has been degraded by fertilizers and pesticides.

Some can pull heavy sleds in extremely cold weather, while others can run up to forty miles per hour.

Forty years ago, advances in fertilizers and pesticides boosted crop yield and fed a growing planet.

Forty is often a moment for an individual to pause and take stock.

When it makes it up to forty the locals will start buying them too.

Forty embryos were produced, and resulted in five pregnancies and three live births.

We should be cutting forty billion in one year to resolve our problems.

And in winter it is seriously cold, forty below at times.

Nyquil and it has continued into my forty first b-day.

There are easily forty or more art galleries in town.

Forty years ago, in the early flush of independence, the government tried to do everything.

There are likely thousands of scientific papers relating to dark matter that have been published in the past nearly forty years.

The worries started forty years ago, he explains, when aluminum exposure was linked to neuron damage in rabbits.

Forty years ago it became fashionable to use synthetic resins to fill the holes and coat the surfaces of decaying statuary.

The fact that forty scientists participated in this study hasn't added credibility to its conclusions.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

forty (ˈfɔːtɪ)

—n , pl -ties
1.	See also number the cardinal number that is the product of ten and four
2.	a numeral, 40, XL, etc, representing this number
3.	something representing, represented by, or consisting of 40 units

—*determiner*
4.	a. amounting to forty: forty thieves
	b. (as pronoun): there were forty in the herd

[Old English fēowertig]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

forty

O.E. feowertig, from feower "four" + tig "group of ten" (see -ty (1)). Roaring Forties are rough parts of the ocean between 40 and 50 degrees latitude. Forty winks "short sleep" is attested from 1828.

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