PDQ
"pdq" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“PDQ” is an uncommon English word, ranked #97,424 in English word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #97,424
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Initialism of pretty damned/darn quick: very quickly, as quickly as possible.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | PDQ |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #97,424 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “PDQ” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for PDQ is 3 letters long, classified as an adverb. Corpus data places it at rank #97,424 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Initialism of pretty damned/darn quick: very quickly, as quickly as possible.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for PDQ, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is PDQ, spelled P-D-Q.
Definition
- 1Initialism of pretty damned/darn quick: very quickly, as quickly as possible.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "PDQ"?
What does "PDQ" mean?
What language does "PDQ" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “PDQ”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-D-Q - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.