plural forties
1
: a number equal to four times 10 see Table of Numbers
2
forties plural
: the numbers 40 to 49
specifically
: the years 40 to 49 in a lifetime or century
3
: the third point scored by a side in a game of tennis
4
or 40 US, informal
: a forty-ounce bottle or other container of an alcoholic beverage (such as beer or malt liquor)
Kelvin finished his forty in seven or eight long gulps. Tossed the bottle in the median carpeted with brown grass.—
Dave Byrne
Dave Byrne… smoking weed and drinking 40s while her kids run loose.—Jim Schutze
Jim Schutze
forty
adjective
forty
pronoun, plural in construction
Examples of forty in a Sentence
The temperature outside is in the high forties.
She is in her forties.
Recent Examples on the Web
Rife was scheduled for between thirty and forty shows a month, a breakneck pace that’s unusual outside of Broadway or professional baseball.
—Carrie Battan, The New Yorker, 13 Aug. 2024
But their greatest-hits collection Chronicle is riding high on the Billboard 200 every week, always somewhere in the thirties or forties.
—Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 4 Aug. 2024
Martha, the daughter, is single, in her late forties, and Judy, the mother, is also on her own, divorced from her husband and estranged from Martha’s older sister, Molly.
—Deborah Treisman, The New Yorker, 28 July 2024
The researchers observed that the women who followed a healthy diet from their forties onward were 43 to 84 percent more likely to be well-functioning physically and mentally at age 70 than those who did not.
—Don Rauf, EverydayHealth.com, 2 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for forty 
Carrie Battan, The New Yorker, 13 Aug. 2024
But their greatest-hits collection Chronicle is riding high on the Billboard 200 every week, always somewhere in the thirties or forties.
—Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 4 Aug. 2024
Martha, the daughter, is single, in her late forties, and Judy, the mother, is also on her own, divorced from her husband and estranged from Martha’s older sister, Molly.
—Deborah Treisman, The New Yorker, 28 July 2024
The researchers observed that the women who followed a healthy diet from their forties onward were 43 to 84 percent more likely to be well-functioning physically and mentally at age 70 than those who did not.
—Don Rauf, EverydayHealth.com, 2 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for forty
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'forty.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Forty.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/forty. Accessed 20 Aug. 2024.
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