quote
/kwəʊt/
"quote" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“quote” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,963 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,963
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 12
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A statement attributed to a person; a quotation.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | quote |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kwəʊt/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #2,963 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 12 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “quote” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for quote is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kwəʊt/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,963 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for quote, with forms such as "qoute", "qquote", and "quoet". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 12 confusable-pair relationships, "quotes", "quoted", "que", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English quoten, coten (“to mark (a book) with chapter numbers or marginal references”), from Old French coter, from Medieval Latin quotāre (“to distinguish by numbers, number chapters”), itself from Latin quotus (“which, what number (in sequence… The correct English form is quote, spelled Q-U-O-T-E.
Definition
- 1A statement attributed to a person; a quotation.
- 2A quotation mark.
- 3A summary of work to be done with a set price; a quotation.
- 4A price set and offered (by the potential seller) for a financial security or commodity; a quotation.
Etymology
From Middle English quoten, coten (“to mark (a book) with chapter numbers or marginal references”), from Old French coter, from Medieval Latin quotāre (“to distinguish by numbers, number chapters”), itself from Latin quotus (“which, what number (in sequence)”), from quot (“how many”) and related to quis (“who”). The sense developed via “to give as a reference, to cite as an authority” to “to copy out exact words” (since 1680); the business sense “to state the price of a commodity” (1866) revives the etymological meaning. The noun, in the sense of “quotation,” is attested from 1885; see also usage note, below.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: qoute,qquote,quoet,quotte,qutoe,uqote
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of quote - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “quote”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is Q-U-O-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kwəʊt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “quotes” - see the side-by-side comparison. quote vs quotes
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.