Wiktionary

Q

See also: q, -q, Ⴍ, q̃, q̇, Q., and Appendix:Variations of "q"
Languages (31)
Translingual • English
Afar • Afrikaans • Albanian • Azerbaijani • Basque • Central Franconian • Chinese • Dutch • Estonian • Finnish • German • Heiltsuk • Hungarian • Ido • Inupiaq • Italian • Kwak'wala • Latin • Malay • Norwegian • Portuguese • Romani • Romanian • Saanich • Somali • Spanish • Tagalog • Vietnamese • Zulu
Page categories

Q U+0051, Q
LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Q
← P
[U+0050] 		Basic Latin R →
[U+0052]
Character variations
Ｑ U+FF31, Ｑ
FULLWIDTH LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Q
← Ｐ
[U+FF30] 		Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms Ｒ →
[U+FF32]
Depending on the typeface, the tail of the Q may cross the bowl.

Translingual

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

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From the Etruscan letter 𐌒 (q, “cu”), from the Ancient Greek letter Ϙ (Q, “qoppa”), derived from the Phoenician letter 𐤒 (q, “qop”), from the Egyptian hieroglyph 𓃻.

Letter

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Q (lower case q)

  1. The seventeenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.
    Queen, Qualen, Qatarien

See also

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Symbol

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Q

  1. Abbreviation of quetta-.
  2. (biochemistry) IUPAC 1-letter abbreviation for glutamine.
  3. (chemistry, hypothetical) quadrium
  4. (physics) Electric charge.
  5. (physics) Dynamic pressure.
  6. (logic, mathematics) Robinson arithmetic.
  7. Quetzal (currency of Guatemala).
  8. (linguistics) A wildcard for a uvular consonant.
    Synonym: H (sometimes covers any guttural consonant)
  9. (linguistics, Japanese) Gemination as a phoneme.
    Synonyms: ꟴ (ꟴ), ꞯ (ꞯ)

Descendants

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  • English: max Q
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  • Letter styles
  •  
    Uppercase and lowercase versions of Q, in normal and italic type
  •  
    Uppercase and lowercase Q in Fraktur

See also

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The template Template:Letter does not use the parameter(s): 
Character=Q
Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.

Other representations of Q:

English

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Etymology 1

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Latin Q (Q/q)

Letter

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Q (upper case, lower case q, plural Qs or Q's)

  1. The seventeenth letter of the English alphabet, called cue and written in the Latin script.
See also
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Number

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Q (upper case, lower case q)

  1. The ordinal number seventeenth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called cue and written in the Latin script.

Etymology 2

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Shortening

Pronunciation

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(Name of letter:)

Noun

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Q (countable and uncountable, plural Qs)

  1. Abbreviation of question and questions.
    Q and A
  2. Abbreviation of quarter.
    1. (slang, UK) A quarter ounce of a drug.
      • 2023 June 1, Dave, Central Cee, Jim Legxacy, Jo Caleb, Jonny Leslie, Kyle Evans (lyrics and music), “Sprinter” (track 2), in Split Decision, performed by Dave and Central Cee, Neighbourhood; Live Yours:
        Yeah, alright, started with a Q, didn't wait in line
  3. (electronics) Short for Q factor (“quality factor”).
  4. (astronomy) Abbreviation of quasar.
  5. (sports) Abbreviation of qualified.
    Antonym: DNQ
  6. American Library Association abbreviation of quarto (“book size”).
  7. (card games, chess) Abbreviation of queen.
  8. (medicine) Alternative letter-case form of q (“every”).
Derived terms
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Translations
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Proper noun

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Q

  1. (literature, pseudonym) Arthur Quiller-Couch.
  2. (Islam, followed by an ayah (verse) number) Abbreviation of Quran.
  3. (theology, Christianity) The hypothetical common source (logion collection) of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (from German Quelle (“source”)); all the non-Marcan shared material in those gospels (not always considered a single document)
    • 2006, Brian Han Gregg, The Historical Jesus and the Final Judgment Sayings in Q, Mohr Siebeck, →ISBN, page 103:
      In comparing Q 10:10–11 and Mark 6:11, there is no reliable way to determine which exact form of the saying is more primitive, the third person account of Mark or the direct speech recorded in Q.
  5. (US politics) Abbreviation of QAnon (“anonymous poster on anonymous online message boards who originated a pro-Trump conspiracy theory”).
    • 2017 December 19, Paris Martineau, “The Storm Is the New Pizzagate — Only Worse”, in New York‎[1], archived from the original on 26 December 2018:
      In this fantasy world, all of the far right’s wildest dreams come true: Q promises that Clinton, Obama, Podesta, Abedin, and even McCain are all either arrested and wearing secret police-issued ankle monitors, or just about to be indicted; that the Steele dossier is a total fabrication personally paid for by Clinton and Obama; and that the Las Vegas massacre was most definitely an inside job connected to the Saudi-Clinton cabal.
    • 2018 July 31, Julia Carrie Wong, “What is QAnon? Explaining the bizarre rightwing conspiracy theory”, in The Guardian‎[2]:
      In a thread called “Calm Before the Storm”, and in subsequent posts, Q established his legend as a government insider with top security clearance who knew the truth about a secret struggle for power involving Donald Trump, the “deep state”, Robert Mueller, the Clintons, pedophile rings, and other stuff.
    • 2019 March 6, Kaitlyn Tiffany, “How a conspiracy theory about Democrats drinking children’s blood topped Amazon’s best-sellers list”, in Vox‎[3], archived from the original on 7 March 2019:
      At the end of her report, Coaston concluded, “Most people have never heard of QAnon, or Q — and that includes most of Donald Trump’s supporters.” That’s still the case, but the fact that this book is at the top of some of Amazon’s most prominent recommendation lists means that a far larger share of the population will — at a minimum — stumble across these ideas.
Derived terms
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Etymology 3

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From James Bond films, the quartermaster being codenamed Q, from the novels by Ian Flemming, where he created Q-branch, which creates secret devices hidden in plain sight, named after Q-ships, heavily armed merchantmen that look like normal merchantmen.

Noun

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Q (plural Qs)

  1. (slang) A gadget master, gadget creator.

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Afar

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Letter

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Q

  1. The eleventh letter in the Afar alphabet.

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Afrikaans

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Pronunciation

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Letter

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Q (upper case, lower case q)

  1. The seventeenth letter of the Afrikaans alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

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Noun

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Q (plural Q's, diminutive Q'tjie)

  1. Q

Albanian

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Pronunciation

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Letter

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Q (lower case q)

  1. The twenty-third letter of the Albanian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

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Azerbaijani

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Letter

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Q upper case (lower case q)

  1. The seventeenth letter of the Azerbaijani alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

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Basque

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Pronunciation

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Letter

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Q (upper case, lower case q)

  1. The eighteenth letter of the Basque alphabet, called ku and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

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  • Used chiefly in recent loanwords and foreign proper nouns.

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Central Franconian

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Letter

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Q

  1. A letter in the German-based alphabet of Central Franconian.

Usage notes

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  • Only used in the digraph qu for /kʋ/. The Dutch-based spelling uses kw instead.

Chinese

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Etymology 1

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From English cute.

Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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  This entry needs an audio pronunciation. If you are a native speaker with a microphone, please record this word. The recorded pronunciation will appear here when it's ready.

Adjective

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Q

  1. (informal) cute
Derived terms
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  • QQ (Cantonese)
  • Q版 (kiù bǎn)

Etymology 2

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From Hokkien 𩚨 (khiū).

Pronunciation

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  This entry needs an audio pronunciation. If you are a native speaker with a microphone, please record this word. The recorded pronunciation will appear here when it's ready.

Adjective

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Q

  1. (Taiwan, informal, of food) soft and pliable; chewy (like mochi), exhibiting Q texture
Derived terms
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Etymology 3

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Euphemistic form of 鳩／鸠 (gau1).

Pronunciation

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Infix

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Q

  1. (Cantonese, vulgar, euphemistic) fucking; bloody; damn
    多Q餘 [Cantonese, trad.]
    多Q余 [Cantonese, simp.]
    do1 kiu1 jyu4 [Jyutping]
    freaking unnecessary
    多Q事 [Cantonese, trad. and simp.]
    do1 kiu1 si6 [Jyutping]
    freaking nosy
    麻Q煩 [Cantonese, trad.]
    麻Q烦 [Cantonese, simp.]
    maa4 kiu1 faan4 [Jyutping]
    freaking troublesome

Etymology 4

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From English cue.

Pronunciation

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  This entry needs an audio pronunciation. If you are a native speaker with a microphone, please record this word. The recorded pronunciation will appear here when it's ready.

Noun

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Q

  1. (informal) (snooker) cue
Derived terms
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Classifier

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Q

  1. (Hong Kong Cantonese, slang, figuratively) Classifier for number of sexual intercourses. (as a measure of pricing in prostitution) (clarification of this definition is needed)
Derived terms
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  • 孖Q (maa1 kiu1) (Cantonese)

Etymology 5

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From English quinella.

Pronunciation

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  This entry needs an audio pronunciation. If you are a native speaker with a microphone, please record this word. The recorded pronunciation will appear here when it's ready.

Noun

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Q

  1. (informal) quinella
Derived terms
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  • 孖Q (maa1 kiu1) (Cantonese)

Etymology 6

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From QQ, an adaptation of ICQ, another instant messaging program.

Pronunciation

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  This entry needs an audio pronunciation. If you are a native speaker with a microphone, please record this word. The recorded pronunciation will appear here when it's ready.

Verb

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Q

  1. (informal) to use QQ, the popular Chinese instant messaging program

Etymology 7

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From clipping of English question. Orthography is from English Q (“question”).

Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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Q

  1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) question (in assignments, tests, exams, etc.) (Classifier: 條／条 c)
    你考試通常做long Q先定short Q先㗎？ [Cantonese, trad.]
    你考试通常做long Q先定short Q先㗎？ [Cantonese, simp.]
    nei5 haau2 si3 tung1 soeng4 zou6 long1 kwet1 sin1 ding6 sot1 kwet1 sin1 gaa3? [Jyutping]
    In exams, which of the following would you usually work on first, long questions or short questions?

Etymology 8

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From the letter Q of the English pattern playing cards. Various names exist for this symbol in the spoken language.

Mandarin
From 圈 (quān, “circle”), because the letter Q resembles a circle.
Cantonese
From 女 (neoi5-1, “woman”).
Hokkien
From the letter.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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Q

  1. (card games) queen (Classifier: 隻／只; 張／张)

See also

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Dialectal synonyms of 圈兒 (“queen (playing cards)”) [map]
Variety Location Words
Northeastern Mandarin Beijing 疙瘩, 疙瘩包
Central Plains Mandarin Luoyang 皮蛋, 十二
Zhengzhou 十二, 圈
Xi'an 圈子
Xuzhou 皮蛋, 皮球, 球蛋
Lanyin Mandarin Ürümqi 皮蛋, 圈子
Southwestern Mandarin Wuhan 皮蛋, 蛋, 環, 婆婆
Guiyang 蛋, 蛋蛋
Liuzhou 悶, 丘
Jianghuai Mandarin Nanjing 皮蛋
Yangzhou 皮蛋
Cantonese Guangzhou 女
Hong Kong 女
Taishan 女
Nanning 敏
Nanning (Tanka) 文
Wuzhou 敏
Yulin 敏
Gan Nanchang 皮蛋
Pengze 箍
Lichuan 皮蛋
Pingxiang 蛋, 皮蛋架架
Hakka Yudu 圈子
Huizhou Jixi 皮蛋
Jin Taiyuan 圈兒
Southern Min Xiamen Q, 卵
Shantou 箍, 𡚸, 妹
Puning 箍
Wu Shanghai 皮蛋
Shanghai (Chongming) 皮蛋
Suzhou 蛋, 皮蛋
Ningbo 皮蛋, 蛋

Etymology 9

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Pronunciation 1

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Letter
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Q

  1. The seventeenth letter of the Latin alphabet.

Pronunciation 2

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Letter
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Q

  1. The seventeenth letter used in Pinyin.
Usage notes
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  • 《汉语拼音方案》 defines a standard pronunciation for each letter. However, these pronunciations are rarely used in education; another pronunciation is commonly used instead.
  • The pronunciations above are only used while referring to letters in Pinyin. They are not used in other context (such as English).

Compounds

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Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Letter

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Q (capital, lowercase q)

  1. the seventeenth letter of the Dutch alphabet

See also

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  • Previous letter: P
  • Next letter: R

Estonian

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Estonian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia et

Letter

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Q (upper case, lower case q)

  1. The seventeenth letter of the Estonian alphabet, called kuu and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

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  • Used only in foreign words.

See also

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Finnish

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Etymology

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The Finnish orthography using the Latin script was based on those of Swedish, German and Latin, and was first used in the mid-16th century. No earlier script is known. See the Wikipedia article on Finnish for more information, and Q for information on the development of the glyph itself.

Letter

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Q (upper case, lower case q)

  1. The seventeenth letter of the Finnish alphabet, called kuu and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

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  • Used only in loanwords. In more established loanwords qu is replaced with kv.

Derived terms

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compounds

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German

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Pronunciation

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Letter

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Q (upper case, lower case q)

  1. The seventeenth letter of the German alphabet.

Heiltsuk

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Pronunciation

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Letter

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Q (lower case q)

  1. A letter of the Heiltsuk alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

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Hungarian

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Pronunciation

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  • (phoneme): IPA(key): [ˈk]
  • (letter name): IPA(key): [ˈkuː]

Letter

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Q (upper case, lower case q)

  1. A letter of the extended Hungarian alphabet, called kú and written in the Latin script.

Declension

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Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, back harmony)
singular plural
nominative Q Q-k
accusative Q-t Q-kat
dative Q-nak Q-knak
instrumental Q-val Q-kkal
causal-final Q-ért Q-kért
translative Q-vá Q-kká
terminative Q-ig Q-kig
essive-formal Q-ként Q-kként
essive-modal — —
inessive Q-ban Q-kban
superessive Q-n Q-kon
adessive Q-nál Q-knál
illative Q-ba Q-kba
sublative Q-ra Q-kra
allative Q-hoz Q-khoz
elative Q-ból Q-kból
delative Q-ról Q-król
ablative Q-tól Q-któl
non-attributive
possessive - singular 		Q-é Q-ké
non-attributive
possessive - plural 		Q-éi Q-kéi
Possessive forms of Q
possessor single possession multiple possessions
1st person sing. Q-m Q-im
2nd person sing. Q-d Q-id
3rd person sing. Q-ja Q-i
1st person plural Q-nk Q-ink
2nd person plural Q-tok Q-itok
3rd person plural Q-juk Q-ik

See also

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Ido

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Pronunciation

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  • (always found before the letter U) IPA(key): /kw/

Letter

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Q (lower case q)

  1. The seventeenth letter of the Ido alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

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Inupiaq

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Pronunciation

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  1. IPA(key): /q/

Letter

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Q (lower case q)

  1. A letter of the Inupiaq alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Italian

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Italian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia it

Pronunciation

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  • (letter name) IPA(key): **/ˈku/*
    • Rhymes: -u
  • (phonemic realization; almost always found before u, where it forms the pronunciation /kw/) IPA(key): /k/

Letter

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Q f or m (invariable, upper case, lower case q)

  1. The fifteenth letter of the Italian alphabet, called cu and written in the Latin script.

See also

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Kwak'wala

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Alternative forms

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  • ⟨Ḵ⟩ in Uʼmista orthography (standard Kwak'wala)

Pronunciation

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Letter

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Q (lower case q)

  1. (Liqʼwala dialect) A letter of the Kwak'wala alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

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Latin

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Letter

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Q

  1. The seventeenth letter of the Latin alphabet

References

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  • "Q", in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • Q in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Malay

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Malay Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia ms

Pronunciation

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  • (Name of letter) IPA(key): [kiu], [kju]
  • (Phoneme, Syllable initial) IPA(key): [q], [k]
  • (Phoneme, Syllable final) IPA(key): [k̚]

Letter

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Q

  1. The seventeenth letter of the Malay alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

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Norwegian

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Pronunciation

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Omonyms: ku (Nynorsk), ku (Bokmål)

Letter

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Q (upper case Q, lower case q)

  1. the 17th letter of the Norwegian alphabet

Usage notes

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Only in loan words and foreign names. Also used in old inscriptions and texts, e.g. kv > qu. Used in the same way in some surnames. In the neo-runic inscriptions from 17-19 centuries may be written as ᛩ.

Portuguese

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Pronunciation

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IPA(key): /ˈke/

Letter

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Q (upper case, lower case q)

  1. The seventeenth letter of the Portuguese alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

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Romani

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): (after n) /ɡ/, (after any other letter) /k/

Letter

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Q (upper case, lower case q)

  1. (International Standard) Used to represent the dative and genitive cases.

See also

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References

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  • Yūsuke Sumi (2018) “-q-”, in ニューエクスプレス　ロマ（ジプシー）語 (in Japanese), Tokyo: Hakusuisha, →ISBN, page 15

Romanian

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Pronunciation

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Letter

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Q (upper case, lower case q)

  1. The twentieth letter of the Romanian alphabet, called chiu and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

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  • Used chiefly in loanwords.
  • The digraph qu is pronounced /kw/, /kv/, or /kʲ/.

See also

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Saanich

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Pronunciation

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Letter

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Q

  1. The twenty-fifth letter of the Saanich alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

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Somali

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Pronunciation

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  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /ɢ/
  • (letter name): IPA(key): /ɢɑːf/

Letter

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Q upper case (lower case q)

  1. The fifteenth letter of the Somali alphabet, called qaaf and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

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  1. The fifteenth letter of the Somali alphabet, which follows Arabic abjad order. It is preceded by F and followed by K.

See also

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Spanish

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Letter

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Q (upper case, lower case q)

  1. the 18th letter of the Spanish alphabet

Tagalog

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Spanish Q. Each pronunciation has a different source:

  • Filipino alphabet pronunciation is influenced by English Q.
  • Abecedario pronunciation is from Spanish Q.

Pronunciation

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  • (Standard Tagalog)
    • IPA(key): /ˈkju/ [ˈkju] (letter name, Filipino alphabet)
      • Rhymes: -u
    • IPA(key): /ˈku/ [ˈku] (letter name, Abecedario)
      • Rhymes: -u
    • IPA(key): /k/ [k] (phoneme, usually together with u)
    • IPA(key): /ˈku/ [ˈku] (phoneme, before u, English unadapted loanwords)

Letter

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Q (upper case, lower case q, Baybayin spelling ᜃ᜔ᜌᜓ)

  1. The nineteenth letter of the Tagalog alphabet (the Filipino alphabet), called kyu and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

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  • This letter is mostly used only in proper nouns, unadapted loanwords, or Spanish-based spellings.

See also

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Letter

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Q (upper case, lower case q, Baybayin spelling ᜃᜓ)

  1. (historical) The twentieth letter of the Tagalog alphabet (the Abecedario), called cu and written in the Latin script.

Further reading

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  • “Q”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018

Vietnamese

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Pronunciation

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  • (Hà Nội) IPA(key): [ku˧˧], [kwi˧˧], [kwəː˨˩]
  • (Huế) IPA(key): [kʊw˧˧], [kwɪj˧˧], [kwəː˦˩]
  • (Saigon) IPA(key): [kʊw˧˧], [wɪj˧˧], [wəː˨˩]
  • Phonetic spelling: cu, quy, quờ

Letter

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Q (upper case, lower case q)

  1. The twenty-first letter of the Vietnamese alphabet, called cu, quy, or quờ and written in the Latin script.

See also

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Zulu

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Letter

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Q (upper case, lower case q)

  1. The seventeenth letter of the Zulu alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

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