qualvsquiltTell them apart

Which to use

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

#45,609
“qual” frequency rank
#21,036
“quilt” frequency rank
66645
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature qual quilt
Definition Qualifying exam. An exam taken by someone (usually a grad student or prospective grad student) to measure their mastery in something, usually an academic field. A bed covering consisting of two layers of fabric stitched together, with insulation between, often having a decorative design.

Letter map: qual vs quilt

Shared letters muted; letters that set qual and quilt apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. qual runs 4 letters (CVVC) against quilt's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
qual
5 ch
quilt

Spelling & dictionary notes on qual vs quilt

qual and quilt are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66645, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

qual is recorded at frequency rank #45,609, classified as anoun. quilt is at rank #21,036, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkwɪlt/.

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 66645, this pair ranks #67,057 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of qual vs quilt

Shared letters: lqu. Private to "qual": a. Private to "quilt": it.

"qual" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "quilt" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • qual ← qaul · qqual · quall · qula · uqal
  • quilt ← qiult · qquilt · quillt · quiltt · quitl · qulit · uqilt

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "qual" and "quilt" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary English text, does "qual" or "quilt" show up more?
"quilt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,036 in our English list, against #45,609 for "qual". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "qual" vs "quilt" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "qual" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "quilt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,057 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "qual" and "quilt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "qual vs Quayle". 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 #67,057 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