Fourth

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Pronunciation: /fɔːθ/

Definitions

1. The ordinal number that comes after third in a sequence or ranking
2. An ordinal numeral signifying a position that is immediately after the third in a list or series of items
3. Denoting the position following the third in an order or arrangement

Etymology: The word "fourth" is a plain ordinal, built by adding the suffix "-th" to "four." That suffix marks position in a sequence, which is why "fourth" joins a family that includes "third," "fifth," and "sixth." Its older form in Old English was "fēorþa" (or "fēowerþa"), and the earliest English versions were closer to "ferthe." The change to "fourth" came from an alteration influenced by "four" itself, so the modern spelling and pronunciation now point straight back to the number it counts from. The word's roots reach far beyond English. Its ancestor in Proto-Germanic was "*fedurþô," and cousins survive across the Germanic languages: Dutch "vierde," German "vierte," Danish "fjerde," and Icelandic "fjórði." These match closely in shape and meaning, showing that speakers of the early Germanic languages already had a shared way of naming the fourth item in a series.

Synonyms: fourthly