forty-eleven
A whole lot — too many to bother counting.
Also called forty-leven, forty-'leven, fifty-eleven.
Updated September 21, 2026
forty-eleven pronunciation
/FOR-tee-LEV-un/
Meaning
A joke number for a great many. Nobody is doing math. I told you forty-eleven times means you have heard it plenty. Shows up as forty-'leven or forty-leven in speech. Cousin to umpteen and fifty-eleven. Rural Southern mouths keep it handy for kin, chores, frogs in the ditch, whatever piles up.
How folks use it
- “I done told that boy forty-eleven times to shut the gate.”
- “They had forty-eleven cousins at the reunion and I quit counting.”
Origin and etymology
An indefinite hyperbolic numeral, a fake big number used for emphasis. Print examples appear by the 1830s and 1840s in American papers. Green’s Dictionary of Slang tracks forty-eleven and forty-leven for too many or a non-specific crowd. DARE calls it indefinitely numerous. Wayword Radio notes it started wider in the U.S. and later sounds most natural in Southern talk, with fifty-eleven as a later twin.
Frequently asked questions
Is forty-eleven a real number?
No. It is comic exaggeration for a bunch, same idea as umpteen.