A general methodology for linearization of fourth order ordinary differential equations is developed using point transformations. The solution of the problem on linearization of fourth-order equations by means of point transformations is presented here. We show that all fourth-order equations that are linearizable by point transformations are contained in the class of equations which is linear in the third-order derivative. We provide the linearization test and describe the procedure for obtaining the linearizing transformations as well as the linearized equation. For ordinary differential equations of order greater than 4 we obtain necessary conditions, which separate all linearizable equations into two classes.