Which to use
“quick” is an adjective and “quince” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,127
- “quick” frequency rank
- #34,657
- “quince” frequency rank
- 35784
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | quick | quince |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Moving with speed, rapidity or swiftness, or capable of doing so; rapid; fast. | The pear-shaped fruit of a small tree of the rose family, Cydonia oblonga. |
Where the eye mixes quick and quince
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between quick and quince
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: quick is /kwɪk/ while quince is /kwɪns/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35784, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
quick is recorded at frequency rank #1,127, classified as anadj, pronounced /kwɪk/. quince is at rank #34,657, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kwɪns/.
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 35784, this pair ranks #308,966 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of quick vs quince
Shared letters: ciqu. Private to "quick": k. Private to "quince": en.
"quick" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "quince" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "quick" for "quince" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "quick" or "quince" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "quick" and "quince" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "quick" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "quince" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #308,966 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "quick" and "quince" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quiche vs quince". 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 #308,966 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.