quick
/kwɪk/
"quick" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“quick” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #1,127. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #1,127
- frequency rank, English
- 2,880
- “Q” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Moving with speed, rapidity or swiftness, or capable of doing so; rapid; fast.
Corpus desk
Index EN-quick · quick · English
quick · rank #1,127 · 7 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #1,127
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,880
- PHOTO-FINISH Numbers
Nearest frequency peer: Numbers (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “quick”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- minute
minute
98,877 corpus weight
- nature
nature
98,876 corpus weight
- Numbers
Numbers
98,875 corpus weight
- quick
quick
98,874 corpus weight
- sell
sell
98,873 corpus weight
- significant
significant
98,872 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “quick” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | quick |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /kwɪk/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,127 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “quick” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around quick (IPA /kwɪk/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #1,127 among 2,880 “Q” headwords. Wiktionary lists 14 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for quick, with forms such as "qiuck", "qquick", and "qucik". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "quit", "quiz", "quid", and more, 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 quik, quic (“living, alive, active”), from Old English cwic (“alive”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwiku (“alive, lively quick”), from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz (“alive, lively, quick”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷih₃wós (“alive”), from *gʷ… The correct English form is quick, spelled Q-U-I-C-K.
Definition
- 1Moving with speed, rapidity or swiftness, or capable of doing so; rapid; fast.
- 2Occurring in a short time; happening or done rapidly.
- 3Lively, fast-thinking, witty, intelligent.
- 4Mentally agile, alert, perceptive.
- 5Easily aroused to anger; quick-tempered.
- 6Alive, living.
- 7At the stage where it can be felt to move in the uterus.
- 8Pregnant, especially at the stage where the foetus's movements can be felt; figuratively, alive with some emotion or feeling.
- 9Flowing, not stagnant.
- 10Burning, flammable, fiery.
- 11Fresh; bracing; sharp; keen.
- 12productive; not "dead" or barren
- 13Not cryptic.
- 14Being a distinctively sensitive kind of glaciomarine clay that may behave like a watery fluid under stress.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how quick appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I ran to the station – but I wasn't quick enough.
He's a quick runner.
Etymology
From Middle English quik, quic (“living, alive, active”), from Old English cwic (“alive”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwiku (“alive, lively quick”), from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz (“alive, lively, quick”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷih₃wós (“alive”), from *gʷeyh₃- (“to live”), *gʷeyh₃w- (“to live”). For semantic development, compare lively. Cognate with Dutch kwik, kwiek (“lively, quick”), German keck (“sassy, cheeky”), Danish kvik (“lively, quick-witted, quick”), kvæg (“cattle”), Faroese kvikur (“quick”), Icelandic kvikur (“lively, quick”), Norn kvikk, hwikk (“living, swarming, teeming”), Norwegian kvikk (“quick, lively, quick-witted”), Swedish kvick (“quick, witty”), and also (from Indo-European) with Greek βίος (víos, “life”), Latin vivus (“alive”), Lithuanian gývas (“alive”), Latvian dzīvs (“alive”), Russian живо́й (živój, “alive, lively, quick”), Polish żywy (“alive”), Welsh byw (“alive”), Irish beo (“alive”), biathaigh (“to feed”), Northern Kurdish jîn (“to live”), jiyan (“life”), giyan (“soul”), can (“soul”), Sanskrit जीव (jīva, “alive”), Albanian nxit (“to urge, stimulate”). Doublet of jiva.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- qiuck
- qquick
- qucik
- quicck
- quickk
- quikc
- uqick
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of quick - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "quick", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).
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.