quvsquadWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“qu” and “quad” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#20,195
“qu” frequency rank
#11,274
“quad” frequency rank
31469
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature qu quad
Definition An administrative subdivision of China roughly equivalent to districts, distinguished from the more rural "counties" (xian). Clipping of quadrat.

Letter map: qu vs quad

Shared letters muted; letters that set qu and quad apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

2 ch
qu
4 ch
quad

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

qu and quad are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “qu” sits inside “quad”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31469, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

qu is recorded at frequency rank #20,195, classified as anoun. quad is at rank #11,274, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kwɑd/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 31469, this pair ranks #345,828 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of qu vs quad

Shared letters: qu. Private to "qu": -. Private to "quad": ad.

"qu" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "quad" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • quadqaud · qquad · quadd · quda · uqad

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "qu" and "quad" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “qu” sits inside “quad”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "qu" or "quad"?
"quad" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,274 in our English list, against #20,195 for "qu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list