Which to use
“quad” and “quay” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,274
- “quad” frequency rank
- #20,746
- “quay” frequency rank
- 32020
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | quad | quay |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Clipping of quadrat. | A stone or concrete structure on navigable water used for loading and unloading vessels; a wharf. |
Where the eye mixes quad and quay
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. quad (/kwɑd/) and quay (/kiː/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - d in “quad” becomes y in “quay”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32020, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
quad is recorded at frequency rank #11,274, classified as anoun, pronounced /kwɑd/. quay is at rank #20,746, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kiː/.
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 32020, this pair ranks #341,256 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of quad vs quay
Shared letters: aqu. Private to "quad": d. Private to "quay": y.
"quad" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "quay" · 4 letters · shape CVVV