q
French, noun
q is spelled Q (one letter) and appears 22 times per million words in written French, the 3,448th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Q is a French masculine noun meaning “abbreviation of quintal” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Q is a different word: “abbreviation of cul (“ass; arse”)”. With a tilde, q̃ is a different word: “scribal abbreviation of que”.
What does q mean in English?
letter
- 1
The seventeenth letter of the French alphabet, written in the Latin script.
noun
- 1
masculineabbreviation of quintal
letter
- 1
The seventeenth letter of the French alphabet, written in the Latin script.
noun
- 1
informalmasculineabbreviation of cul (“ass; arse”)
conjunction
- 1
obsoletescribal abbreviation of que
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
letter: 1. Dix-septième lettre et treizième consonne de l’alphabet (majuscule).
noun: 1. Variante orthographique de cul.
symbol: 1. Symbole du quintal.
letter: 1. Dix-septième lettre et treizième consonne de l’alphabet (minuscule).
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of q
- Q uppercase
- q lowercase
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How common is q in French?
q appears 22 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).