quay
/kiː/noun, verb, adjective, adverb
quay is spelled Q-U-A-Y: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,629th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, quay means “A stone or concrete structure on navigable water used for loading and unloading vessels; a wharf” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of quay is quays.
How many letters and syllables are in quay?
| Letters | 4: Q-U-A-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.8 times per million words; the 20,629th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| 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 common is quay?
Quay appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,629th 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 quay?
- UK /kiː/
- /keɪ/
- US /kiː/
Quay 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-quay.ogg, En-au-quay.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with quay
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: key (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with quay?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as quay from its last stressed vowel (/i/):
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 quay
- quays plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- quaying participle, present
- quayed participle, past
- quayer comparative
- quayest superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does quay mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A stone or concrete structure on navigable water used for loading and unloading vessels; a wharf.
moor up in the quay
verb
- 1
To land or tie up at a quay or similar structure, especially used in the phrase "quay up".
adjective
- 1
Alternative spelling of qway (“far”).
adverb
- 1
Alternative spelling of qway (“far”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Quay in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense structure for loading and unloading vessels:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | quai |
| German | Kai, Anlegestelle, Pier |
| Portuguese | cais, embarcadouro, ancoradouro |
| Spanish | muelle, embarcadero |
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 quay come from?
The current spelling replaced the spelling key in the 1690s to emulate the spelling but (at least originally) not the pronunciation of the equivalent modern French quai. From Middle English kay, key, kaye, keye, from Old French kay, cail, from Gaulish *kagyum, cagiíun (“enclosure”), from Proto-Celtic *kagyom (“pen, enclosure”) (compare Welsh cae (“field”)), from Proto-Indo-European *kagʰyóm (“enclosure”). Doublet of hedge and hey (“choreographic figure”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).