quire

/ˈkwaɪ.ə(ɹ)/

//ˈkwaɪ.ə(ɹ)// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"quire" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“quire” is uncommon English (frequency #73,565 among 288 “Q” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#73,565
frequency rank, English
288
“Q” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 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.

Corpus desk

Index EN-quire · quire · English

quire · rank #73,565 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #73,565
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 288
  • PHOTO-FINISH Quintin

Nearest frequency peer: Quintin (-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.

Long-tail ranks near “quire”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “quire” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for quire
PropertyValue
Headwordquire
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈkwaɪ.ə(ɹ)/
Letters5
Frequency rank#73,565
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “quire” in English

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).quirefalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “Quintin” (#73,564), “Quintanilla” (#73,563), “quarrelsome” (#73,561). Among 288 “Q” headwords, “quire” is #73,565. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

quire is uncommon English at frequency #73,565 among 288 “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

  1. 1
    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.
  2. 2
    A 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.
  3. 3
    A book, poem, or pamphlet.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how quire appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Under the year 1533 we are told that the ream contained twenty quires.
  2. […] and we must accept the fact that all those good novels, Villette, Emma, Wuthering Heights, Middlemarch, were written by women without more experience of life than could enter the house of a clergyman; written too in the common sitting-room of that respectable house and by women so poor that they could not afford to buy more than a few quires of paper…

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

cahier(Français)caderno(Português)

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

How do you spell "quire"?
"quire" is spelled Q-U-I-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈkwaɪ.ə(ɹ)/.
What does "quire" mean?
As a noun, "quire" means: 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.
How do you pronounce "quire"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "quire" is /ˈkwaɪ.ə(ɹ)/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "quire"?
From Middle English quayer, from Anglo-Norman quaier and Old French quaer, from Latin quaternus (“fourfold”), from quater (“four times”). Doublet of cahier. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "quire", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Rawat#73,573pricy#73,553recce#73,578Praha#73,549

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list