top 40

noun

A list of the current 40 songs that are most popular with the general public (variously measured).

“I was listening to a top 40 radio station.”

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Meanings

top 401

nountop 40 (countable and uncountable, plural top 40s)

plural top 40s · alternative Top 40 · alternative top forty

  1. countableentertainmentA list of the current 40 songs that are most popular with the general public (variously measured).
  2. uncountablebroadcastingA radio format for popular music, usually including the 40 most popular songs at a given time.

    I was listening to a top 40 radio station.

    1 more example

    Nearly every history of Top 40 launches from an anecdote about how radio station manager Todd Storz came up with the idea sometime between World War II and the early 1950s, watching with friends in a bar in Omaha as customers repeatedly punched up the same few songs on the jukebox.

    2014, Eric Weisbard, Top 40 Democracy […] , University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 4

Top 402

nounTop 40 (countable and uncountable, plural Top 40s)

plural Top 40s

  1. countableuncountableAlternative letter-case form of top 40.
Cite this entry
APA

top 40. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/top%2040

MLA

“top 40.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/top%2040. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “top 40,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/top%2040.

Source: top 40 on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.