PDQ
"pdq" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“PDQ” is uncommon English (frequency #97,424 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #97,424
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Initialism of pretty damned/darn quick: very quickly, as quickly as possible.
Corpus desk
Index EN-pdq · PDQ · English
PDQ · rank #97,424 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #97,424
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-0 0 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH pedes
Nearest frequency peer: pedes (+1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “PDQ”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- passim
passim
2,581 corpus weight
- pastis
pastis
2,580 corpus weight
- PDQ
PDQ
2,577 corpus weight
- pedes
pedes
2,576 corpus weight
- penge
penge
2,575 corpus weight
- Pense
Pense
2,573 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “PDQ” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| 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) |
Long-tail rank of “PDQ” in English
Rare enough to double-check
PDQ is uncommon English at frequency #97,424 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anadverb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "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.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how PDQ appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Well, whatever happened, Joe must be taken off the Noakes case p.d.q.
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "PDQ", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).