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PlainSpell

quick

/kwɪk/adjective, adverb, noun, verb

quick is spelled Q-U-I-C-K: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 95 times per million words in written English, the 1,125th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, quick means “Moving with speed, rapidity or swiftness, or capable of doing so; rapid; fast” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in quick?

Letters5: Q-U-I-C-K
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing95 times per million words; the 1,125th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

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).

How common is quick?

Quick appears 95 times per million words in written English, the 1,125th 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 quick?

  • /kwɪk/
  • [kʰw̥ɪk]

Quick 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-quick.ogg, En-uk-quick.ogg, En-au-quick.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of quick

  • quicker comparative
  • more quick comparative
  • quickest superlative
  • most quick superlative
  • kwik
  • quicks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • quicking participle, present
  • quicked participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does quick mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Moving with speed, rapidity or swiftness, or capable of doing so; rapid; fast.

    I ran to the station – but I wasn't quick enough.

  2. 2

    Occurring in a short time; happening or done rapidly.

    That was a quick meal.

  3. 3

    Lively, fast-thinking, witty, intelligent.

    You have to be very quick to be able to compete in ad-lib theatrics.

  4. 4

    Mentally agile, alert, perceptive.

    My father is old but he still has a quick wit.

  5. 5

    Easily aroused to anger; quick-tempered.

    She has a very quick temper.

  6. 6

    archaicAlive, living.

  7. 7

    archaicAt the stage where it can be felt to move in the uterus.

    Whoever does any act under such circumstances that if he thereby caused death he would be guilty of culpable homicide, and does by such act cause the death of a quick unborn child, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may ex

  8. 8

    archaicPregnant, especially at the stage where the foetus's movements can be felt; figuratively, alive with some emotion or feeling.

adverb

  1. 1

    Quickly, in a quick manner.

    Get rich quick.

  2. 2

    Answer quickly.

noun

  1. 1

    Raw or sensitive flesh, especially that underneath finger and toe nails.

  2. 2

    Plants used in making a quickset hedge

  3. 3

    The life; the mortal point; a vital part; a part susceptible to serious injury or keen feeling.

  4. 4

    archaicSynonym of living (“those who are alive”).

    the quick and the dead

  5. 5

    Quitchgrass.

  6. 6

    A fast bowler.

verb

  1. 1

    To amalgamate surfaces prior to gilding or silvering by dipping them into a solution of mercury in nitric acid.

  2. 2

    archaicTo quicken.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Quick in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchrapide (moving with speed), animé, vivant (alive)
Germanschnell, geschwind, rasch (moving with speed), quicklebendig (alive), scharfsinnig (lively, witty), schnell von Begriff (mentally agile, perceptive)
Portugueserápido, ligeiro, veloz, célere (moving with speed), sabugo (sensitive flesh)
Spanishrápido, célere (moving with speed), carne viva (sensitive flesh)

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 quick come from?

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.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after quick