quarantine
/ˈkwɔɹ.ən.tin/noun, verb
quarantine is spelled Q-U-A-R-A-N-T-I-N-E. The wrong spelling people search most is quarentine: about 410 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 12 of all searches for the word. Quarantine is a noun meaning “A period of 40 days, particularly”. The plural of quarantine is quarantines.
How many letters and syllables are in quarantine?
| Letters | 10: Q-U-A-R-A-N-T-I-N-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.4 times per million words; the 12,216th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, quarentine, about 410 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell quarantine?
Quarantine is spelled Q-U-A-R-A-N-T-I-N-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 12 of the searches for quarantine in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is quarantine?
Quarantine appears 4.4 times per million words in written English, the 12,216th 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 quarantine?
- US /ˈkwɔɹ.ən.tin/
- US /ˈkɔɹ.ən.tin/
- /ˈkwɑɹ.ən.tin/
Quarantine has 3 syllables (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-quarantine.ogg, En-au-quarantine.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with quarantine?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as quarantine from its last stressed vowel (/ɔɹəntin/):
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 quarantine
- quarantines plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- quarantining participle, present
- quarantined participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does quarantine mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A period of 40 days, particularly
- 2
The 40-day period during which a widow is entitled to remain in her deceased husband's home while any dower is collected and returned.
Querentyne is where a man dyeth seisyd of a maner place and other landis where of the wyfe ought to be indowed, than the woman shall hold the maner place by .xl. days within which tyme her dower shalbe to her assyned.
- 3
The 40-day period of isolation required after 1448 at Venice's lazaret to avoid renewed outbreaks of the bubonic plague and identical policies in other locations.
- 4
A 40-day period formerly imposed by the French king upon warring nobles during which they were forbidden from exacting revenge or continuing to fight.
Quarantain of the King, is a Truce of forty Days appointed by S. Louis; during which it was expressly forbid to take any Revenge of the Relation or Friends of People.
- 5
A period, instance, or state of isolation from the general public or from native livestock and flora enacted to prevent the spread of any contagious disease.
The tourists were put in quarantine to ensure none of them would be able to spread the plague.
- 6
A similar period, instance, or state of rigidly enforced or self-enforced detention or isolation.
What I wish to put under Quarantine are family events–& all allusion thereto past–present–or to come.
- 7
A place where such isolation is enforced, a lazaret.
They bring wood, millet, rye, barley, and a little wheat to the quarantine to barter with the Cossaks for salt.
- 8
colloquialA period of time where people are not allowed to leave their homes to contain the spread of an infectious disease.
verb
- 1
To place into isolation to prevent the spread of any contagious disease.
Venice began quarantining incoming ships for 40 days in 1448 to prevent further outbreaks of bubonic plague.
- 2
To enter or stay in quarantine, particularly to self-quarantine to avoid an epidemic disease.
International travelers must quarantine themselves at their own expense in a designated hotel for 14 days upon arrival.
- 3
obsoleteTo impose a quarantine, to establish quarantine regulations.
It has just been announced that Norfolk, Va., and Holly Springs, Miss., have quarantined against Memphis.
- 4
Synonym of isolate more generally.
J.F.K. "quarantined" Cuba rather than blockading it to avoid needless escalation of the conflict.
- 5
Synonym of restrict.
Did any moral taint hang about me that quarantined my entrance into its circle?
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate quarantine?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of quarantine: CIQ.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Quarantine in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | quarantaine , mettre en quarantaine |
| German | Quarantäne |
| Portuguese | quarentena , quarentenar |
| Spanish | encuarentenar, cuarentenar , cuarentena , encuarentenarse |
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 quarantine come from?
From Medieval Latin quarentena and quarentīna (“40-day period, Lent”) via Middle English quarentine, Norman quarenteine, French quarenteine, and Italian quarantina, via proposed Late Latin *quaranta + -ēna (forming distributive adjectives), from Latin quadrāgintā (“four tens, 40”). In reference to French politics, calque of French quarantaine after edicts of Louis IX. In reference to a severance of political relations, popularized by the Roosevelt administration's 1937 approach to the Axis powers and the later Kennedy administration's 1962 approach to Cuba during the missile crisis.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).