Which to use
“qua” is a preposition and “quart” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,473
- “qua” frequency rank
- #28,679
- “quart” frequency rank
- 64152
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | qua | quart |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | as; in the capacity of; acting as | A unit of liquid capacity equal to two pints; one-fourth (quarter) of a gallon. Equivalent to 1.136 liters in the UK and 0.946 liter (liquid quart) or 1.101 liters (dry quart) in the U.S. |
Where the eye mixes qua and quart
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: qua is /kwɑː/ while quart is /kwɔːt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “qua” sits inside “quart”, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64152, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
qua is recorded at frequency rank #35,473, classified as aprep, pronounced /kwɑː/. quart is at rank #28,679, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kwɔːt/.
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 64152, this pair ranks #79,217 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of qua vs quart
Shared letters: aqu. Private to "qua": -. Private to "quart": rt.
"qua" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "quart" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- quart ← qaurt · qquart · quarrt · quartt · quatr · qurat · uqart