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PlainSpell

quit

/kwɪt/adjective, verb, noun

quit is spelled Q-U-I-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 35 times per million words in written English, the 2,785th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, quit means “Released from obligation, penalty, etc; free, clear, or rid” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in quit?

Letters4: Q-U-I-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing35 times per million words; the 2,785th 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 quit?

Quit appears 35 times per million words in written English, the 2,785th 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 quit?

  • /kwɪt/
  • [kʰw̥ɪt]

Quit 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-quit.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of quit

  • quight
  • quits present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • quitting participle, present
  • quitted participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural

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

What does quit mean?

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

adjective

  1. 1

    Released from obligation, penalty, etc; free, clear, or rid.

verb

  1. 1

    To leave (a place).

    The British quit India in the 1940s.

  2. 2

    To set at rest; to free, as from anything harmful or oppressive; to relieve; to clear; to liberate.

  3. 3

    To release from obligation, accusation, penalty, etc.; to absolve; to acquit.

  4. 4

    To abandon, renounce (a thing).

  5. 5

    To resign from (a job, office, position, etc.).

    After having to work overtime without being paid, I quit my job.

  6. 6

    To stop, give up (an activity).

    John is planning to quit smoking.

  7. 7

    To close (an application).

  8. 8

    archaicTo pay (a debt, fine etc.).

noun

  1. 1

    Any of numerous species of small passerine birds native to tropical America.

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

Quit in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchquitter (to leave), arrêter, abandonner (to give up, stop doing something), démissionner (to resign)
Germanverlassen (to leave), aufhören, aufgeben, sein lassen (to give up, stop doing something), kündigen (to resign)
Portuguesesair, abandonar (to leave), parar, desistir (to give up, stop doing something), desempregar-se, demitir-se (to resign)
SpanishU.S.: cuitear, quitear (to give up, stop doing something), dimitir (de), renunciar (a) (to resign)

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 quit come from?

From Middle English quiten, quyten, from Anglo-Norman quitter, Old French quitter, from quitte (“acquitted, quit”), ultimately from Latin quietus, which itself derives from Proto-Indo-European *kʷyéh₁-ti-s, from *kʷyeh₁- (“to rest”). Doublet of coy, quite, quiet, and quietus. Compare Dutch kwijten (“to quit”), German Low German quitten (“to quit”), German quitten, quittieren, Danish kvitte, Swedish qvitta, kvitta (“to quit, leave, set off”), Icelandic kvitta.

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

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