Q
noun
the 17th letter of the English alphabet, a consonant.
Q
1 American
[kyoo]
/ kju /
Or
q
noun
-
Q's,
plural
-
Qs,
plural
-
q's,
plural
-
qs
plural
-
the 17th letter of the English alphabet, a consonant.
-
any spoken sound represented by the letter Q or q, as in quick, acquit, or Iraq.
-
something having the shape of a Q .
-
a written or printed representation of the letter Q or q.
-
a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter Q or q.
Q
2
American
Q
3
American
Symbol.
-
the 17th in order or in a series.
-
(sometimes lowercase) the medieval Roman numeral for 500.
-
Biochemistry. glutamine.
-
Physics. heat.
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Thermodynamics. a unit of heat energy, equal to 10 18 British thermal units (1.055 × 10 21 joules).
-
Also called Q-factor. Electronics. the ratio of the reactance to the resistance of an electric circuit or component.
-
Biblical Criticism. the symbol for material common to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke that was not derived from the Gospel of Mark.
q.
4
American
abbreviation
q.
5
American
abbreviation
-
quart; quarts.
-
query.
-
question.
-
quintal.
-
quire.
Q.
6
American
abbreviation
-
quarto.
-
Quebec.
-
Queen.
-
question.
-
(in Guatemala) quetzal; quetzals.
Q
1
British
symbol
-
chess queen
-
question
-
physics heat
abbreviation
Q.
2
British
abbreviation
-
quartermaster
-
Also: q. quarto
-
Queen
-
question
q.
3
British
abbreviation
-
quart
-
quarter
-
quarterly
q
4
British
/ kjuː /
noun
-
the 17th letter and 13th consonant of the modern English alphabet
-
a speech sound represented by this letter, in English usually a voiceless velar stop, as in unique and quick
q
5
British
symbol
q
Idioms
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of q.
From the Latin word quadrāns
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The use of Q phrases by government agencies during wartime has excited online conspiracy theorists.
From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2026
I was given the chance to go behind the scenes and speak to some of those behind the success of Dept Q.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Through this partnership, robot delivery is now available to nearly 200 local restaurants, including Sushi Q, the Indian Kitchen and Mel & Rose.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
Q: How do you balance fiction and non-fiction reading?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
But that money wasn’t lasting ’cause Ma was giving it away—a couple hundred here, a couple thousand there, until Q put an end to that.
From "American Street" by Ibi Zoboi
This same relationship between E. q. quadrivittatus and the subspecies of E. umbrinus that occurs in north-central Colorado was pointed out in the account of E. q. quadrivittatus.
From Taxonomy of the Chipmunks, Eutamias quadrivittatus and Eutamias umbrinus by John A. White
Flowers the subjects either of regular or irregular peloria, q. v., are often destitute of some or all their stamens, e.g.
From Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants by Maxwell T. Masters
Shaw's—Borax, 3 ozs.; orange shellac, 5 ozs.; water, q. s.; boil and add soluble aniline black or nigrosine, q. s.
Thus, since 1943 the recognized subspecies of E. quadrivittatus have been: E. q. quadrivittatus, E. q. hopiensis, E. q. inyoensis, E. q. nevadensis, E. q. umbrinus, and E. q. adsitus.
From Taxonomy of the Chipmunks, Eutamias quadrivittatus and Eutamias umbrinus by John A. White
Although complete in itself, it appears to have formed a part of a larger work, as the signatures run from n. to q., in eights.
From Annals of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, A.D. 1598-A.D. 1867 With a Preliminary Notice of the earlier Library founded in the Fourteenth Century by William Dunn Macray
Most notably, he fired General Charles Q. Brown, the military’s highest-ranking Black officer.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
It’s one thing to have John Q. Public, who reads and watches certain news outlets where you’ve appeared, mistake you for someone else.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 23, 2025
Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the fired Joint Chiefs chairman, is the second Black general to serve in the role.
From Slate ● Feb. 25, 2025
“There’s no market for weird,” says Q. But to judge by the very existence of “Fantasmas,” there is.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 7, 2024
Broken Windows was the brainchild of the criminologists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling.
From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
The Fed Board in Washington oversees supervision of large regional banks like SVB, and Fed Vice Chair Michael Barr is undertaking a review of what went wrong to be published on May q.
From Reuters ● Apr. 12, 2023
The letters q, p, d and b are all shaped identically but rotated, and some have argued serifs make them easier to identify.
From New York Times ● Jan. 19, 2023
Then discuss whether the equilibrium is stable or unstable, noting that this may depend on the signs of the charges and the direction of displacement of q from the center of the square.
From Textbooks ● Aug. 12, 2015
The electrostatic or Coulomb force is conservative, which means that the work done on q is independent of the path taken.
From Textbooks ● Aug. 12, 2015
But the q in Jacqueline is too hard so I write Jackie Woodson for the first time.
From "Brown Girl Dreaming" by Jacqueline Woodson
Although they're only halfway through filming for season two, and it won't be seen on screens until next year, most of Department Q's recruits are keen to keep on going.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Q’s posts also stopped, leaving many followers adrift.
From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2025
All of Q’s children, and all of us who just loved him like he was our father, know this Quincy Jones always took care of people, and that’s how he fed the world.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 2, 2025
Q’s gaze hovers above the audience, but she is not talking to us.
From New York Times ● Jun. 5, 2024
You felt you would have to mind your P’s and Q’s, if you ever met living people who looked like that.
From "The Magician's Nephew" by C. S. Lewis
Here, he takes an opportunity to respond publicly to a few Qs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2025
"We've got a whole line of Qs doing really cool stuff in the tech space who are women," he said.
From BBC ● Mar. 4, 2024
Since the doors to the theater first swung open, it’d been made clear that everyone needed to mind their Ps and Qs.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 6, 2023
“The point of a code is to set consistent expectations for how justices will behave & the norms of ethical conduct. These types of articles raise Qs a code could answer,” the group tweeted.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 1, 2023
Some Os and Qs and Cs long and narrow.
From "One Crazy Summer" by Rita Williams-Garcia
Viewed this way, minding our p’s and q’s is less about proscriptive notions of correctness, and more about mindfulness, self-discovery and proper conduct.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 7, 2023
Being aware of how to mind your p's and q's in each of those places is essential to getting by or possibly moving up in the world.
From Salon ● Nov. 24, 2022
For parents worried that virtual assistants are encouraging bad manners in children, it’ll be a good way to prod the little ones to remember their p’s and q’s.
From The Verge ● Nov. 29, 2018
"That's the biggest adjustment. It makes me lock in defensively. I know I have to be on my p's and q's."
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 8, 2018
She snaps back, “Now, you just mind your own p’s and q’s there!”
From "Shouting at the Rain" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
E-Mili 1st 3 qs wasted but 4th was a vg one.
From BBC ● Jan. 23, 2013
After the camera pans to the board – which has the words 'shaqattack', 'shaqalici', 'shaquesque' and, yes, 'shaqfu' on it – Shaq is asked: "How do you get so many qs?"
From The Guardian ● Oct. 12, 2012
He minds not only the ps and qs of acting but the entire alphabet of stagecraft.
From Time Magazine Archive
Diana is closeted in Clarence House, the residence of the Queen Mother, getting a cram course in monarchical ps and qs.
From Time Magazine Archive
For instance, there were twenty ss, and only two qs.
From The Adventures of Bobby Orde by Worth Brehm
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
