Which to use
“quad” is a noun and “quo” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,274
- “quad” frequency rank
- #9,947
- “quo” frequency rank
- 21221
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | quad | quo |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Clipping of quadrat. | quoth |
Where the eye mixes quad and quo
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: quad is /kwɑd/ while quo is /kwəʊ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21221, 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/. quo is at rank #9,947, tagged as averb, pronounced /kwəʊ/.
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 21221, this pair ranks #425,474 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of quad vs quo
Shared letters: qu. Private to "quad": ad. Private to "quo": o.
"quad" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "quo" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- quad ← qaud · qquad · quadd · quda · uqad