quartvsquitWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#28,679
“quart” frequency rank
#2,805
“quit” frequency rank
31484
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature quart quit
Definition 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. Released from obligation, penalty, etc; free, clear, or rid.

Where the eye mixes quart and quit

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

5 ch
quart
4 ch
quit

Why the eye confuses quart with quit

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: quart is /kwɔːt/ while quit is /kwɪt/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31484, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

quart is recorded at frequency rank #28,679, classified as anoun, pronounced /kwɔːt/. quit is at rank #2,805, tagged as anadj, pronounced /kwɪt/.

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 31484, this pair ranks #345,718 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of quart vs quit

Shared letters: qtu. Private to "quart": ar. Private to "quit": i.

"quart" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "quit" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • quartqaurt · qquart · quarrt · quartt · quatr · qurat · uqart
  • quitqiut · qquit · quitt · quti · uqit

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "quart" and "quit" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "quart" is a noun and "quit" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "quart" or "quit" show up more?
"quit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,805 in our English list, against #28,679 for "quart". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "quart" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "quit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #345,718 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "quart" and "quit" 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 #345,718 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