quality
/ˈkwɒl.ɪ.ti/
"quality" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“quality” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #816 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #816
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Level of excellence.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | quality |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkwɒl.ɪ.ti/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #816 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “quality” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for quality is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkwɒl.ɪ.ti/. Corpus data places it at rank #816 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for quality, with forms such as "qaulity", "qquality", and "quailty". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "quantity", "qualify", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English qualite, from Old French qualité, from Latin quālitās, quālitātem, from quālis (“of what kind”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷo- (“who, how”). Cicero coined qualitas as a calque to translate the Ancient Greek word ποιότης (poiótēs, “quali… The correct English form is quality, spelled Q-U-A-L-I-T-Y.
Definition
- 1Level of excellence.
- 2Something that differentiates a thing or person.
- 3Position; status; rank.
- 4High social position. (See also the quality.)
- 5The degree to which a man-made object or system is free from faults and flaws, as opposed to scope of functions or quantity of items.
- 6In a two-phase liquid–vapor mixture, the ratio of the mass of vapor present to the total mass of the mixture.
- 7The third step in OPQRST where the responder investigates what the NOI/MOI feels like.
- 8A newspaper with relatively serious, high-quality content.
Etymology
From Middle English qualite, from Old French qualité, from Latin quālitās, quālitātem, from quālis (“of what kind”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷo- (“who, how”). Cicero coined qualitas as a calque to translate the Ancient Greek word ποιότης (poiótēs, “quality”), coined by Plato from ποῖος (poîos, “of what nature, of what kind”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: qaulity,qquality,quailty,qualitty,qualityy,qualiyt,quallity,qualtiy,qulaity,uqality
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of quality - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "quality"?
What does "quality" mean?
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Using “quality”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is Q-U-A-L-I-T-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkwɒl.ɪ.ti/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “quantity” - see the side-by-side comparison. quality vs quantity
- 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.