Which to use
“quarter” is a noun and “quarterly” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,963
- “quarter” frequency rank
- #7,270
- “quarterly” frequency rank
- 9233
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | quarter | quarterly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A fourth part of something. | Occurring once every quarter year (three months); taking place quarter-yearly. |
Letter map: quarter vs quarterly
Shared letters muted; letters that set quarter and quarterly apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. quarter runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against quarterly's 9 (CVVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - quarter and quarterly
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: quarter is anoun and quarterlyanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “quarter” sits inside “quarterly”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9233, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
quarter is recorded at frequency rank #1,963, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈk(w)ɔː.tə/. quarterly is at rank #7,270, tagged as anadj.
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 9233, this pair ranks #498,425 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of quarter vs quarterly
Shared letters: aeqrtu. Private to "quarter": -. Private to "quarterly": ly.
"quarter" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "quarterly" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "quarter" and "quarterly" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "quarter" or "quarterly"?
Useful next steps
You've compared "quarter" and "quarterly". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "quarter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "quarterly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #498,425 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "quarter" and "quarterly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quarter vs quitter". 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 #498,425 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.