4 (number) - in Other Fields

In Other Fields

See also 4 (disambiguation).

• The phrase "four-letter word" is used to describe most swear words in the English language, as most swear words do indeed possess four letters.
• Four (四, formal writing: 肆, pinyin sì) is considered an unlucky number in Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Japanese cultures because it sounds like the word "death" (死, pinyin sǐ). Due to that, many numbered product lines skip the "four": e.g. Nokia cell phones (there is no series beginning with a 4), Microsoft Windows (which switched to "Windows 95" for version 4), Palm PDAs, the Leisure Suit Larry games, etc. Some buildings skip floor 4 or replace the number with the letter "F", particularly in heavily Asian areas. See tetraphobia and Numbers in Chinese culture.
• The number of characters in a canonical four-character idiom.
• In the NATO phonetic alphabet, the digit 4 is called "fower".
• In Astrology, Cancer is the 4th astrological sign of the Zodiac.
• In Tarot, The Emperor is the fourth trump or Major Arcana card.
• In Tetris, a game named for the Greek word for 4, every shape in the game is formed of 4 blocks each.
• 4 is one of The Numbers – 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42 – featured in Lost.
• 4 represents the number of Justices on the Supreme Court of the United States necessary to grant a writ of certiorari (i.e., agree to hear a case; it is one less than the number necessary to render a majority decision).