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Glite Dictionary
four-pronged

four-pronged

1 5.1
Having four pointed parts like a fork
  • adjective
  • /fɔr prɔŋd/
translation icon : de cuatro puntas
  • In his toolbox, there was a handy four-pronged device designed for gripping nuts and bolts.

Examples

  • She was a strange creature, with a homely, wrinkled, and bewhiskered face, a spherical body, a four-pronged tail, and a marsupial-type pouch.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • The gardener used a four-pronged cultivator to aerate the soil before planting.

  • He carefully selected a four-pronged fork for the barbecue to ensure even cooking of the meat.

How Many

four-pronged
1 5.1
two-pronged
3 4.4

Surface Forms

four-pronged positive

Morphology

four-pronged = four + prong (transparent) = four + prong + ed

Formed by adding the regular adjectival '-ed' to the compound 'four-prong', so the meaning is directly derived from 'four' + 'prong'.

Etymology

Four-pronged comes from four and prong, and a prong is a pointed part like the points of a fork, so imagine a fork with four sharp points. That's why four-pronged means 'having four pointed parts'.