quail
/kweɪl/verb, noun
quail is spelled Q-U-A-I-L: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 24,463rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, quail means “To waste away; to fade, to wither” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in quail?
| Letters | 5: Q-U-A-I-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.3 times per million words; the 24,463rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is quail?
Quail appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 24,463rd 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 quail?
- /kweɪl/
- /ˈkweɪ.əl/
Quail 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-quail.ogg, En-au-quail.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with quail?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as quail.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: quali.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of quail
- quails present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- quailing participle, present
- quailed participle, past
- queal
- quele
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does quail mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To waste away; to fade, to wither.
- 2
archaicTo daunt or frighten (someone).
To tell the truth the prospect rather quailed him – wandering about in the gloomy corridors of a nunnery.
- 3
To lose heart or courage; to be daunted or fearful.
- 4
Of courage, faith, etc.: to slacken, to give way.
- 5
obsoleteTo curdle or coagulate, as milk does.
noun
- 1
Any of various small game birds of the genera Coturnix, Anurophasis or Perdicula in the Old World family Phasianidae or of the New World family Odontophoridae.
- 2
The meat from this bird eaten as food.
- 3
obsoleteA prostitute.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Quail in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense any of several small game birds:
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 quail come from?
From Middle English quaylen, from Middle Dutch queilen, quēlen, from Old Dutch *quelan, from Proto-West Germanic *kwelan, from Proto-Germanic *kwelaną (“to suffer”). Doublet of queal.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).