Skip to main content
PlainSpell

quack

/kwæk/noun, verb, interjection, adjective

quack is spelled Q-U-A-C-K: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 26,776th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, quack means “The vocalisation made by a duck” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of quack is quacks.

How many letters and syllables are in quack?

Letters5: Q-U-A-C-K
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.1 times per million words; the 26,776th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is quack?

Quack appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 26,776th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce quack?

  • /kwæk/

Quack has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-quack.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of quack

  • quacks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • quacking participle, present
  • quacked participle, past
  • more quack comparative
  • quacker comparative
  • most quack superlative
  • quackest superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does quack mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The vocalisation made by a duck.

    Did you hear that duck make a quack?

  2. 2

    derogatoryA fraudulent healer, especially a bombastic peddler in worthless treatments, a doctor who makes false diagnoses for monetary benefit, or an untrained or poorly trained doctor who uses fraudulent credentials to attract patients

    That doctor is nothing but a lousy quack!

  3. 3

    derogatoryAny similar charlatan or incompetent professional.

  4. 4

    derogatoryslangAny doctor.

    That quack wants me to quit smoking, eat less, and start exercising. The nerve!

verb

  1. 1

    Of a duck, to make its characteristic vocalisation.

    The more breadcrumbs I threw on the ground, the more they quacked.

  2. 2

    To make a sound similar to the quack of a duck.

  3. 3

    Of a queen bee: to make a high-pitched sound during certain stages of development.

  4. 4

    To practice or commit quackery (fraudulent medicine).

  5. 5

    obsoleteTo make vain and loud pretensions.

interjection

  1. 1

    A duck's quack.

adjective

  1. 1

    Falsely presented as having medicinal powers.

    Don't get your hopes up; that's quack medicine!

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Quack in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcoin-coin (sound made by a duck), cancaner (to make a noise like a duck), charlatan, charlatane (fraudulent or incompetent doctor of medicine), toubib (doctor)
GermanQuaken (sound made by a duck), quaken (to make a noise like a duck), Quacksalber, Kurpfuscher (fraudulent or incompetent doctor of medicine), quak (duck's sound), Quacksalberin (charlatan)
Portuguesequá, quac, qué, quém (sound made by a duck), grasnar, grasnir (to make a noise like a duck)
Spanishcuac, cua (sound made by a duck), graznar, parpar (to make a noise like a duck), matasanos (fraudulent or incompetent doctor of medicine), charlatán (charlatan)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does quack come from?

From Middle English *quacken, queken (“to croak like a frog; make a noise like a duck, goose, or quail”), from quack, qwacke, quek, queke (“quack”, interjection and noun), also kek, keke, whec-, partly of imitative origin and partly from Middle Dutch quacken (“to croak, quack”), from Old Dutch *kwaken (“to croak, quack”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwakōn, from Proto-Germanic *kwakaną, *kwakōną (“to croak”), of imitative origin. Cognate with Saterland Frisian kwoakje, kwaakje (“to quack”), Middle Low German quaken (“to quack, croak”), German quaken (“to quack, croak”), Danish kvække (“to croak”

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after quack