quaternity
A group or set of fourA group or set of four; a foursome, a quartet.
Meaning
4 senses(countable, uncountable)A group or set of four; a foursome, a quartet.
A group or set of four; a foursome, a quartet.
(countable, historical, uncountable)A group of four persons forming the Godhead, in contrast to the Trinity comprising three persons.
(uncountable)Synonym of fourness (“the property or state of being four in number”).
(countable, obsolete, rare, uncountable)Synonym of quarter (“a fourth part”).
- the cardinal number that is the sum of three and one
Translations
2 languagesOrigin
Learned borrowing from Middle French quaternité (“set of four things; (Christianity) dogmaLearned borrowing from Middle French quaternité (“set of four things; (Christianity) dogma that there are four persons in the Godhead”), from Old French quaternité (modern French quaternité); and from their etymon Late Latin quaternitās (“set of four things; (Christianity) group of four persons in the Godhead”) (modelled after trīnitās (“triad; (Christianity) the Trinity”)) + English -ity (suffix forming abstract nouns). Quaternitās is derived from Latin quaternī + -tās (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting states of being); and quaternī is an inflection of quaternus (“four at a time; fourfold”), from quater (“four times”) (from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres (“four”)) + -nus (suffix forming distributive numerals). By surface analysis, quatern + -ity.
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Forms
plural: quaternities| Singular | quaternity |
|---|---|
| Plural | quaternities |
regular
Synonyms
17 synonyms- the cardinal number that is the sum of three and one:four4IVtetradquaternquaternionquaternaryquartet
Word family
7 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.