quite vs quota, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#518
“quite” frequency rank: #14,389
“quota” frequency rank: 14907
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	quite	quota
Definition	To the greatest extent or degree; completely, entirely.	A proportional part or share; the share or proportion assigned to each in a division.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set quite and quota apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

quite

5 ch

quota

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: quite is /kwaɪt/ while quota is /ˈkwəʊtə/. 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 (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14907, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

quite is recorded at frequency rank #518, classified as anadv, pronounced /kwaɪt/. quota is at rank #14,389, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkwəʊtə/.

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 14907, this pair ranks #467,225 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of quite vs quota

Shared letters: qtu. Private to "quite": ei. Private to "quota": ao.

"quite" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "quota" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

quite ← qiute · qquite · quitte · qutie · uqite
quota ← qouta · qquota · quoat · quotta · qutoa · uqota

Frequency comparison

quite#518

quota#14,389

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "quite" and "quota" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "quite" is an adverb and "quota" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "quite" or "quota"?

"quite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #518 in our English list, against #14,389 for "quota". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering quite vs quota

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adverb, it's “quite”; for a noun, it's “quota”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “quite” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable