4 times

Meanings

1. 1adverbfixed phrase

   On four separate occasions or with a frequency of four in a stated period.

   Grammar: Answers how often; usually followed by a period: four times a week, not four time.

   Patterns

   • four times a week
   • four times a year
   • have been somewhere four times

   I have visited that museum four times.

   She checks the oil four times a year.

   He called four times before I answered.

2. 2adverbfixed phrasemathematics

   Multiplied by four, or equal to four times as much or as many.

   Grammar: Used for multiplication; common frames are four times as many as and four times the size of.

   Patterns

   • four times as many as
   • four times the amount
   • multiply by four

   Eight is four times two.

   The new warehouse holds four times as many boxes.

   Rent here is four times the price it was ten years ago.

Common combinations

four times a day

Take the medicine four times a day with food.

four times as much

Steel can cost four times as much as aluminum.

four times the size

The merged company became four times the size it was.

multiply by four

To double twice is to multiply by four.

Synonyms and how they differ

on four occasions

Natural only for the repeated-event sense; it cannot express multiplication.

fourfold

Often means increased to four times the amount; it is more compact and slightly more formal.

quadruple

Can mean make or become four times as much; as a verb it differs from the neutral phrase multiply by four.

Opposites

Word family

four number

The cardinal number in the phrase.

time noun

An occurrence; the plural times gives the repetition sense.

fourth number

One of four equal parts; related but ordinal/fractional, not repetition.

fourfold adverb

By four times as much; used for increase rather than counting visits.

Commonly confused: 4 times or four-time? 4 times or fourth?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “4 times”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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