quartervsquartoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“quarter” and “quarto” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#45,042
“quarter” frequency rank
#589
“quarto” frequency rank
45631
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature quarter quarto
Definition quarto; quarta parte refere-se àquele que ocupa a posição quaternária em uma série; o que vem depois do terceiro

Where the eye mixes quarter and quarto

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

7 ch
quarter
6 ch
quarto

Why the eye confuses quarter with quarto

A purely visual mix-up. quarter (/ˈkwɔːtə/) and quarto (/ˈkwaɾ.tu/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45631, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

quarter is recorded at frequency rank #45,042, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈkwɔːtə/. quarto is at rank #589, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkwaɾ.tu/.

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 45631, this pair ranks #19,756 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of quarter vs quarto

Shared letters: aqrtu. Private to "quarter": e. Private to "quarto": o.

"quarter" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "quarto" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • quarterqaurter · qquarter · quaretr · quarrter · quarterr · quartre · quartter · quatrer
  • quartoqaurto · qquarto · quarot · quarrto · quartto · qurato · uqarto

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "quarter" and "quarto" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkwɔːtə/ versus /ˈkwaɾ.tu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "quarter" vs "quarto" - which ranks higher?
"quarto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #589 in our Portuguese list, against #45,042 for "quarter". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "quarter" and "quarto" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "quarter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "quarto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #19,756 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "quarter" and "quarto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quarter vs quartzo". 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 #19,756 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list