four-letter word

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four-let·ter word

(fôr′lĕt′ər)

Any of several short English words generally regarded as vulgar or obscene.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

four-letter word

any of several short English words referring to sex or excrement: often used as swearwords and regarded generally as offensive or obscene

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

four′-let`ter word′

a short word, typically of four letters, widely regarded as being obscene or scatological.

[1925–30]

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Noun

four-letter word - any of several short English words (often having 4 letters) generally regarded as obscene or offensive

four-letter Anglo-Saxon word

word - a unit of language that native speakers can identify; "words are the blocks from which sentences are made"; "he hardly said ten words all morning"

Translations

four-letter word

[ˌfɔːletəˈwɜːd] N → palabrota f, taco m, grosería f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

four-letter word

[ˈfɔːˌlɛtəˈwɜːd] n → parolaccia

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in ?

References in periodicals archive ?

His two-volume Life Is a Four-Letter Word (1966, 1970; abridged as Breaking In, Breaking Out) is an autobiography to 1956.

Monsarrat, Nicholas (John Turney)

The press says "PR" as if it's a four-letter word. We don't take risks.

Where are today's communication stars?

Which four-letter word, beginning with "E", is the title of an English nobleman who ranks above a Viscount?

QUICK QUIZ

The researchers found that f-bomb was used more than twice as frequently as the next nearest four-letter word of choice.

1 in 13 tweets contain curse words: Study

It would appear Mr Fry does not so much as pass wind (fill in your own four-letter word there for easy reference) without tweeting about it.

For someone like Stephen Fry twittering can be a real tweet

The National Association of Head Teachers was told that "play" had become "a four-letter word" as schools drive children to pass tests.

We want children to play, say heads

Alan Davis's boss at Rotagrip Ltd used a four-letter word when ordering him to leave, Birmingham Employment Tribunal was told.

Sacked OAP wins a pounds 3,000 payoff; TRIBUNAL: Sales manager, 67, sent packing with four-letter word

That, four-letter word is immortalized on everything front key chains and floor mats to a phenomenally successful 1973 American postage stamp.

Putting his stamp on love: the man who bent the O in LOVE is everywhere this summer. Catching up with 75-year-old out painter Robert Indiana

A listener complained after hearing a four-letter word at 3.20pm.

Eminem's ``radio edit'' too strong - regulators

Vinarcik, Robert Bosch Corp.; Casting Design For Structural Components, Part II-- Time-Saving Analysis for High-Cycle Fatigue," Michael Gwyn, The Advanced Technology Institute; and "C-A-S-T is Not a Four-Letter Word," Joseph Santner, AFS.

SAE 2003 World Congress to feature 22 papers over two days of metalcasting sessions. (Metalcasting Associations)

The watchdog also upheld a complaint against Ant and Dec's Saturday morning ITV show CD:UK for a live show in December last year in which ex-Guns n' Roses guitarist Slash used a four-letter word and made sexual references which were audible to viewers.

Ali G rapped over breach of guidelines

In the last days of the New York Herald Tribune , art director Peter Palazzo talked editors into moving from Bodoni Bold, the ever present newspaper headline face, to Caslon by lettering a four-letter word in both.