Forth, Fourth
Forth and fourth are two words that are pronounced in the same manner but are spelled differently and have different meanings. They are homophones.
Forth means moving forward in space, time or degree, to progress away from a starting point, to emerge from hiding or inaction. Forth is an adverb that is generally considered a more literary or formal word, one that is not usually used in casual conversation. It is derived from the German words fort and vort, meaning forward or through.
Fourth describes something or someone organized in the position that comes after the third position and before the fifth position. Fourth is an ordinal number, which is a number that denotes the position of something or someone in a sequence. Fourth may also refer to a musical interval that involves the span of four notes, or a gear for a motor vehicle. In the United States, a fourth might refer to twenty-five percent of something or one quarter, three fourths may refer to seventy-five percent of something or three quarters. Fourth is used as an adjective or a noun, it is derived from the Old English word feorða.
Idioms to remember: The expression and so forth means and so on and more of the same.
(Description from the Grammarist and ThoughtCo.) |