forty-five

noun

for·​ty-five ˌfȯr-tē-ˈfīv 

1

: a number that is five more than 40 see Table of Numbers

2

: a .45 caliber handgun

—usually written .45

3

: a phonograph record designed to be played at 45 revolutions per minute

—usually written 45

forty-five adjective

forty-five pronoun, plural in construction

Examples of forty-five in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Webster recently retired after forty-five years as a tool-and-die-maker, and now spends much of his time searching for arrowheads, some of mankind’s earliest tools. —Paige Williams, The New Yorker, 9 Sep. 2024

The artists were selected via a multiphase jury process from among 154 applicants chosen by a diverse pool of nominators from forty-five states; 53 percent of this year’s nominators were artists themselves, and 46 percent were first-time participants in the process. —News Desk, Artforum, 14 Aug. 2024

Why the scoring system came to be is a mystery, but it is meant to represent the quarters of a clock face (15, 30, 45 with game at 60), but 'forty-five' was deemed to be too long to say, so was truncated to 40. —NBC News, 28 July 2024

The boy sets a goal of identifying forty-five different birds in one day, but the birds don’t like the noise of war, so there is no birdsong. —Beth Bachmann, The New Yorker, 25 July 2024

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1623, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

forty-five

noun

for·​ty-five

ˌfȯrt-ē-ˈfīv

: a .45 caliber pistol

—usually written .45