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Glite Dictionary
📻 The 1940s decade 🧑‍🦳 Ages 40-49
forties

forties

1 1.0
The years in a person's life between ages 40 and 49
  • noun
  • /ˈfɔːrtiz/
translation icon : cuarenta
  • Entering their forties, she felt more confident in her career and her personal choices.

Examples

  • Forties, you grow a little pot belly, you grow another chin.

    City Slickers (1991)

  • Many people find new interests and hobbies during their forties as they reassess their life goals.

  • He decided to take a road trip across the country in his forties to explore new opportunities.

Synonyms

fortysomething
vsforties
  • Informal
4.5

A number between forty and forty-nine or a person aged forty to forty-nine

is the neutral standard term rather than informal
mid-forties
vsforties
2.9

Time in life when someone is about 44 to 46 years old

covers the full ten year span instead of a narrow age slice

Compounds

mid-forties
2.9

Time in life when someone is about 44 to 46 years old

Surface Forms

forties singular
forties plural

Morphology

forties = forty (transparent) = forty + s

Formed as the plural of 'forty' to denote the age range 40–49; the relation to the base number is direct and transparent.

Etymology

Forties can also mean the ages from 40 to 49 because it names the ten-year group that starts at forty, 'four tens'. So when someone is in their forties, they are in the decade of life that begins at forty.