# quill

> English word · Noun · IPA /kwɪl/ · frequency rank #25,182

## Definitions
1. The lower shaft of a feather, specifically the region lacking barbs.
2. A pen made from a feather.
3. Any pen.
4. A sharply pointed, barbed, and easily detached needle-like structure that grows on the skin of a porcupine or hedgehog as a defense against predators.
5. A thin piece of bark, especially of cinnamon or cinchona, curled up into a tube.
6. The pen of a squid.
7. The plectrum with which musicians strike the strings of certain instruments.
8. The tube of a musical instrument.
9. Something having the form of a quill, such as the fold or plain of a ruff, or (weaving) a spindle, or spool, upon which the thread for the woof is wound in a shuttle.
10. A quill drive, having a hollow shaft with another movable shaft inside it.

## Etymology
From late Middle English quyl, which is first attested in the early 15th century with the meanings "fragment of reed" and "shaft of a feather", probably from Low German and Middle Low German quiele, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- (“to pierce, stick”).
Compare Middle High German kil (“large feather, quill”), which is derived from the Low German term.

## Easily confused with
- **quit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quill-vs-quit)
- **quiz** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quill-vs-quiz)
- **quip** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quill-vs-quip)
- **quite** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quill-vs-quite)
- **Quinn** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quill-vs-quinn)
- **quits** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quill-vs-quits)
- **quilt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quill-vs-quilt)
- **quirk** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quill-vs-quirk)
- **Quito** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quill-vs-quito)
- **quint** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quill-vs-quint)
- **quid** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quid-vs-quill)
- **qual** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/qual-vs-quill)
- **quick** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quick-vs-quill)
- **quiet** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quiet-vs-quill)
- **quail** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quail-vs-quill)
- **quell** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/quell-vs-quill)

## Common misspellings (5)
`qiull`, `qquill`, `quil`, `qulil`, `uqill`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/quill