quakevsquartTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,100
“quake” frequency rank
#28,679
“quart” frequency rank
44779
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature quake quart
Definition A trembling or shaking. 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 quake and quart

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
quake
5 ch
quart

Why the eye confuses quake with quart

A purely visual mix-up. quake (/kweɪk/) and quart (/kwɔːt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44779, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

quake is recorded at frequency rank #16,100, classified as anoun, pronounced /kweɪk/. 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 44779, this pair ranks #227,410 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of quake vs quart

Shared letters: aqu. Private to "quake": ek. Private to "quart": rt.

"quake" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "quart" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • quakeqauke · qquake · quaek · quakke · qukae · uqake
  • quartqaurt · qquart · quarrt · quartt · quatr · qurat · uqart

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "quake" and "quart" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kweɪk/ versus /kwɔːt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "quake" or "quart"?
"quake" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,100 in our English list, against #28,679 for "quart". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "quake" and "quart" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "quake" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "quart" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #227,410 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "quake" and "quart" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quant vs quart". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #227,410 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list