quid-pro-quo
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
12 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "quid-pro-quo", 12-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "quid-pro-quo" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "quid-pro-quo" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
quid pro quo is aEnglishnoun. It means: Something which is understood as something else; an equivocation. Pronounced /ˌkwɪd.pɹəʊˈkwəʊ/.
Compare similar words
See how quid pro quo compares against similar English words.
Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | quid pro quo |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌkwɪd.pɹəʊˈkwəʊ/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for quid pro quo is 12 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌkwɪd.pɹəʊˈkwəʊ/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader.Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for quid pro quo in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Latin quid prō quō (literally “something for something”). Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is quid pro quo, spelled Q-U-I-D- -P-R-O- -Q-U-O, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Something which is understood as something else; an equivocation.
- 2Substitution of one drug for another.
- 3Something which is offered or asked for in exchange for something else.
- 4A usually non-monetary exchange transaction, or series or process of exchange transactions.
- 5A usually non-monetary exchange transaction, or series or process of exchange transactions.
- 6Sexual harassment in which a person in a workplace implicitly or explicitly requires sexual favours in exchange for something.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin quid prō quō (literally “something for something”).
This word in other languages
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "quid pro quo"?
What does "quid pro quo" mean?
How do you pronounce "quid pro quo"?
What is the origin of the word "quid pro quo"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter Q in our English index: