Crossword clues for four-letter word
four-letter word
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Wiktionary
n. 1 A reference to any of several of the strongest English swearwords that are also four letters long, especially those composing the so-called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/seven%20dirty%20words. 2 A swearword or any words considered to be taboo in a given scenario, (regardless of how many letters are actually in the word or words in question).
WordNet
n. any of several short English words (often having 4 letters) generally regarded as obscene or offensive [syn: four-letter Anglo-Saxon word]
Wikipedia
The phrase four-letter word refers to a set of English-language words written with four letters which are considered profane, including common popular or slang terms for excretory functions, sexual activity and genitalia, and (depending on the listener/reader) sometimes also certain terms relating to Hell and/or damnation when used outside their original religious context(s), and/or slurs. The "four-letter" claim refers to the fact that a large number of (but not all) English "swear words" are incidentally four-character monosyllables. This description came into use during the first half of the twentieth century.
Usage examples of "four-letter word".
There's nothing like that four-letter word to strike terror in the hearts of Carolinians.
He's meeting his girl now, a girl not much older than fourteen -- a five-and-ten-cent-store Cleopatra, a four-letter word.
I was about to knock on it, when a man on the other side uttered a four-letter word.
Oaths, blasphemies, and one recurring four-letter word filled the air like fog.
He finds when he ends at ZZZZ that he has merely compiled a list of every possible four-letter word—.
He used every foul, four-letter word he could think of while he insulted him, but the one word that finally got a reaction was coward.