quotevsquotesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,963
“quote” frequency rank
#4,702
“quotes” frequency rank
7665
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature quote quotes
Definition A statement attributed to a person; a quotation. plural of quote

Letter map: quote vs quotes

Shared letters muted; letters that set quote and quotes apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

5 ch
quote
6 ch
quotes

Spelling & dictionary notes on quote vs quotes

quote and quotes 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 extra letter(s) - “quote” sits inside “quotes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7665, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

quote is recorded at frequency rank #2,963, classified as anoun, pronounced /kwəʊt/. quotes is at rank #4,702, tagged as anoun.

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 7665, this pair ranks #506,126 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of quote vs quotes

Shared letters: eoqtu. Private to "quote": -. Private to "quotes": s.

"quote" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "quotes" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • quoteqoute · qquote · quoet · quotte · qutoe · uqote
  • quotesqoutes · qquotes · quoets · quotess · quotse · quottes · qutoes · uqotes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "quote" for "quotes" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “quote” sits inside “quotes”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "quote" vs "quotes" - which ranks higher?
"quote" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,963 in our English list, against #4,702 for "quotes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "quote" vs "quotes" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "quote" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "quotes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #506,126 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "quote" and "quotes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quakes vs quotes". 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 #506,126 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