quartvsquartetWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“quart” and “quartet” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,733
“quart” frequency rank
#41,480
“quartet” frequency rank
44213
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature quart quartet
Definition Partie d’une unité subdivisée en quatre parties égales. 1/4. Groupe de deux neutrons et deux protons, dans un noyau.

Where the eye mixes quart and quartet

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
quart
7 ch
quartet

Look-alike desk: quart vs quartet

A purely visual mix-up. quart (\kaʁ\) and quartet (\kwaʁ.tɛ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “quart” sits inside “quartet”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44213, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

quart is recorded at frequency rank #2,733, classified as anoun, pronounced \kaʁ\. quartet is at rank #41,480, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kwaʁ.tɛ\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 44213, this pair ranks #212,183 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of quart vs quartet

Shared letters: aqrtu. Private to "quart": -. Private to "quartet": e.

"quart" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "quartet" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • quartqaurt · qquart · quarrt · quartt · quatr · qurat · uqart
  • quartetqaurtet · qquartet · quarett · quarrtet · quartett · quartte · quarttet · quatret

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "quart" and "quartet" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kaʁ\ versus \kwaʁ.tɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "quart" or "quartet"?
"quart" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,733 in our French list, against #41,480 for "quartet". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "quart" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "quartet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #212,183 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "quart" and "quartet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quarter vs quartet". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #212,183 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list