quakevsquiteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#16,100
“quake” frequency rank
#518
“quite” frequency rank
16618
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature quake quite
Definition A trembling or shaking. To the greatest extent or degree; completely, entirely.

Where the eye mixes quake and quite

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

5 ch
quake
5 ch
quite

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: quake is /kweɪk/ while quite is /kwaɪt/. 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 adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16618, 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/. quite is at rank #518, tagged as anadv, pronounced /kwaɪt/.

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 16618, this pair ranks #456,628 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of quake vs quite

Shared letters: equ. Private to "quake": ak. Private to "quite": it.

"quake" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "quite" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • quakeqauke · qquake · quaek · quakke · qukae · uqake
  • quiteqiute · qquite · quitte · qutie · uqite

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "quake" and "quite" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "quake" is a noun and "quite" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "quake" or "quite"?
"quite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #518 in our English list, against #16,100 for "quake". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list