How to Use forty in a Sentence

forty

noun
  • She is in her forties.
  • The temperature outside is in the high forties.
  • All the hunters were in their mid-thirties to mid-forties.
    — Tim Kelly, Outdoor Life, 4 Sep. 2025
  • And if men in their forties no longer want to date me, well, that’s a good thing.
    — Melanie Hamlett, Glamour, 5 Apr. 2019
  • My father had dark skin, and by his forties the mark was hard to make out.
    — Peter Hessler, New Yorker, 31 May 2026
  • The artist was in his mid-forties at the time, married with a young son.
    — Jake McGowan, CNN Money, 11 Apr. 2026
  • Ray, although in his forties, was at one with youth in revolt.
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 26 Feb. 2025
  • Say, a married couple in their forties with two teenage kids.
    — Norman Vanamee, Town & Country, 16 Nov. 2017
  • By the nineteen-forties, lampreys could be found in all five lakes.
    — Katie Thornton, New Yorker, 24 Oct. 2025
  • But this doesn’t make characters in their forties and fifties old.
    — Literary Hub, 7 May 2026
  • The maestro of the defense, then in his forties, didn’t have a fleck of gray hair.
    — Christopher Kamrani, The Athletic, 22 Aug. 2024
  • There are a lot of people in their thirties and forties who hold this movie very near and dear.
    — Nicole Sperling, HWD, 20 Dec. 2017
  • Paul wants someone at the age of twelve, and then in his mid to late forties wants someone else.
    — Emily Blackwood, People.com, 1 Feb. 2025
  • Alice, a woman in her forties, told me that her husband had shot her.
    — Andrew Leland, The New Yorker, 8 July 2023
  • Dense breasts are common—about half of women in their forties or older have them.
    — Jennie Durant, Glamour, 1 Oct. 2025
  • His approval rating in most polls has moved up from the high thirties to the low forties.
    — Ronald Brownstein, CNN, 22 May 2018
  • For now, the team doesn’t know why the cavefish have evolved to catch ten winks instead of the standard forty.
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 7 Apr. 2011
  • Ren’s older, in his forties, and his features are softer than mine.
    — Bryan Washington, The New Yorker, 29 Aug. 2023
  • The dead were then buried in the local churchyard or in family plots on the back forty of the farm.
    — Lisa Wells, Harper's Magazine, 28 Sep. 2021
  • Captain is an old-man rank, a retirement rank, and Magee isn't yet forty.
    — Mark Warren, Popular Mechanics, 23 Mar. 2017
  • These days, some excellent rosé wines come in cans, forties, and even boxes.
    — Kristin Tice Studeman, Vogue, 8 June 2019
  • The masks take between an hour and forty minutes to three hours to print, depending on the type of mask.
    — Claire Goodman, Houston Chronicle, 7 Apr. 2020
  • Biden’s approval ratings had sunk into the low forties.
    — Ed Gaskin, Boston Herald, 14 Sep. 2025
  • Tales for the three in the 1930’s and the four in the forties, golden ages both.
    — Tim Layden, SI.com, 10 June 2018
  • Donovan was no slouch on the judo mat either, earning his black belt in his forties.
    — Matt Majendie, CNN, 19 Dec. 2017
  • In his forties and with bad knees, Butcher was not cut out to be an infantryman.
    — David Hambling, Forbes.com, 4 Apr. 2025
  • Mikail once treated a mother in her early forties plagued by fears that her husband would leave her.
    — Leslie Jamison, New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2025
  • The middle forty to fifty per cent decided the outcome of elections.
    — Robin Wright, The New Yorker, 16 June 2021
  • Nat, a man in his mid-forties, has a diction that feels decidedly out of joint with his age and his era.
    — Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 26 Oct. 2019
  • Erika, who uses a kerosene lamp, is living through the nineteen-forties.
    — Justin Chang, New Yorker, 20 Nov. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'forty.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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