quakevsquasiWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: quake is a noun, quasi is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“quake” is a noun and “quasi” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,100
“quake” frequency rank
#15,250
“quasi” frequency rank
31350
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature quake quasi
Definition A trembling or shaking. Resembling or having a likeness to the named thing.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set quake and quasi apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
quake
5 ch
quasi

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: quake is /kweɪk/ while quasi is /ˈkweɪzaɪ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31350, 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/. quasi is at rank #15,250, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkweɪzaɪ/.

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 31350, this pair ranks #346,886 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of quake vs quasi

Shared letters: aqu. Private to "quake": ek. Private to "quasi": is.

"quake" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "quasi" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • quakeqauke · qquake · quaek · quakke · qukae · uqake
  • quasiqausi · qquasi · quais · quassi · qusai · uqasi

Frequency comparison

quake#16,100
quasi#15,250

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "quake" and "quasi" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "quake" is a noun and "quasi" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "quake" or "quasi"?
"quasi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,250 in our English list, against #16,100 for "quake". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering quake vs quasi

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “quake”; for an adjective, it's “quasi”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “quake” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list