forty
n.n. the number 40. It comes after thirty-nine and before forty-one.
n. the cardinal number equivalent to the product of four and ten. It is the standard spelling for the number 40, notably omitting the 'u' found in 'four'.
There are forty students in the classroom today.
My father is celebrating his forty-first birthday next week, but he still feels like he is twenty.
The survey indicates that nearly forty percent of the local population remains undecided about the proposed changes to the public transport system.
From Middle English fourti, feortiȝ, from Old English fēowertiġ, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *fedwōr tigiwiz (“forty”). By surface analysis, four + -ty.
From fort + -y.
As a numeral, it functions as a determiner before a noun or as a noun itself. Note the spelling: 'forty' does not contain a 'u', unlike 'four' or 'fourteen'.
fourtyfortyLearners often incorrectly include a 'u' because of the spelling of 'four' and 'fourteen'.