quire
/ˈkwaɪ.ə(ɹ)/
"quire" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“quire” is uncommon English (frequency #73,565 among 2,880 “Q” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #73,565
- frequency rank, English
- 2,880
- “Q” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - One-twentieth of a ream of paper; a collection of twenty-four or twenty-five sheets of paper of the same size and quality, unfolded or having a single fold.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | quire |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkwaɪ.ə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #73,565 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “quire” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
quire is uncommon English at frequency #73,565 among 2,880 “Q” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈkwaɪ.ə(ɹ)/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for quire, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English quayer, from Anglo-Norman quaier and Old French quaer, from Latin quaternus (“fourfold”), from quater (“four times”). Doublet of cahier. The correct English form is quire, spelled Q-U-I-R-E.
Definition
- 1One-twentieth of a ream of paper; a collection of twenty-four or twenty-five sheets of paper of the same size and quality, unfolded or having a single fold.
- 2A set of leaves which are stitched together, originally a set of four pieces of paper (eight leaves, sixteen pages). This is most often a single signature (i.e. group of four), but may be several nested signatures.
- 3A book, poem, or pamphlet.
Etymology
From Middle English quayer, from Anglo-Norman quaier and Old French quaer, from Latin quaternus (“fourfold”), from quater (“four times”). Doublet of cahier.
This word in other languages
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “quire”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is Q-U-I-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkwaɪ.ə(ɹ)/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.