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quad

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quad¹

  • /kwɑd/ US
  • /kwɒd/ UK

Rhymes with -ɒd

Where it comes from

Shortened, via clipping or abbreviation, from various English terms. Ultimately related to Latin quattuor (“4”); compare quadri-, quadruple.

The typography senses are from the abbreviation quad. for obsolete quadrat; the keyboard command comes from the verb sense.

noun quads

  1. obsolete A blank metal block used to fill short lines of type. “Quadrats, sir. We call 'em quads.” […] Quads are the spaces left between the paragraphs that come white on the paper. If you look here, at this page that is set-up, you will see that they are deeper than the spaces left between the words and letters—regular little trenches.

    Similar: em quad, em space, quadrat

  2. obsolete, slang A joke used to fill long days of setting type.
  3. obsolete A keyboard command which aligns text with the left or right margin, or centred between them. In combination, as quad left, quad right, or quad centre.
  4. informal A quadrangle (quadrangular courtyard). Gilt-backed books on gilded shelf or table caught the eye, and as you turned your glance from the luxurious interiors to the well-shorn lawn in the Quad with its classic fountain also gilded by sunbeams, the mental vision saw plainly written over the whole "The Union of Luxury and Learning."
  5. colloquial, dated A horse, from colloquial or humorous quadruped specifically for horse. The quads is all right, barrin’ that the bay is blind o’ the left eye, and the chestnut a bit weak in the off fore.
  6. A poster advertising a cinematic film release, measuring forty by thirty inches, four times the area of crown paper.
  7. A quadruple, a jump with four revolutions in the air.
  8. A serving of four shots of espresso; (attributive) containing four shots of espresso. A grande iced quad latte with milk is $6.65 + tax, whereas a quad over ice with milk added at the self-serve station is only $3.65 + tax
  9. A skate with four wheels. These are the quads I recommend for newbies.
  10. abbreviation, clipping Clipping of quadruplet (“a set of four; one of a set of four”). The Pair, Triples, and Quads can be formed with both Honor and Suit Tiles.
  11. A group of four insulated wires twisted together to form two circuits of two wires each.
  12. A quad antenna, a directional radio antenna consisting of multiple loop antennas.
  13. informal A quadruplet, one of four babies born during the same birth. My husband Jim was home[…] and so were my children: Samantha, 4, and the quadruplets, Zachary, Danielle, Amanda, and Elisabeth. The quads were eighteen months old and in their usual fine form — singing, banging, pushing each other, and toddling into impossible places.
  14. A kind of round-robin tournament between four players, where each participant plays every other participant once.
  15. Mormonism The Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price bound in a single volume.
  16. attributive, slang Of or relating to quads (four of a kind). Both players had four of a kind. A had quad fours; B had quad deuces.
  17. informal The quadriceps muscle. Aesthetics aside, if you train your quads while neglecting your hamstrings, you're setting yourself up for an eventual injury.
  18. informal Quadruplex videotape. The high band color quadruplex format is recommended for the following reasons: 1. Quad is now the accepted industry standard world-wide with over 90% of all television broadcast operations using this format for video recording.
  19. informal A quadriplegic person. The worse was the realization that this was my new reality. This too was Bill's debut as a husband of a quad and his first social gathering since June 22.
  20. A unit of energy equivalent to a quadrillion BTU (10¹⁵ BTU).
  21. A small off-road four-wheeled powered vehicle, usually used for recreation or farm work. Cad was a ferocious driver of a quad, much given to wheelies, jumps and stunts in general.

    Similar: quad bike, four-wheeler

  22. informal A quadrilateral. System Rasterization Primitives • Polygons • Triangles, Trapezoids, Quads
  23. informal A quadcopter. Today you can buy quadrotor drones—also known as quadcopters—of just about any kind, for just about any price. The extremely wealthy can buy gold-plated quads, and the rest of us can buy tiny plastic ones.
  24. informal A quadrupel beer. So what’s the beer for this great dish? You guessed it — Belgian quad. “I don’t usually pair the same beer with the one used in the recipe,” Bill explains, “but drinking a great quad with this dish really elevates both the food and the beer in a special way.”

adjective

  1. not comparable Quadruple, four times the usual size or quantity. Printing Plant Machinery, Type, Material, Fittings, Stock-in-Trade, Paper, &c., including QUAD-CROWN CYLINDER MACHINE, With Flyers, Riders, &c., by Miller & Richard.
  2. not comparable Quadrille, marked with squares.

verb quads · quadding · quadded

  1. intransitive, transitive To fill spaces in a line of type with quads. Also quad out.
  2. intransitive, transitive To align text with the left or right margin, or centre it.
  3. transitive To twist four individually insulated conductors together as two pairs of twisted wires that are then twisted together. Can you "quad" the cable?
  4. intransitive To ride a quad bike. visibility was perfect and mud was plentiful for our quadding adventure.

Quad²

Where it comes from

Short for Quadrilateral Security Dialogue.

proper noun the Quad

  1. informal An informal strategic forum between the United States, Japan, Australia, and India, focused on Asian security matters. China has seen it as a threat to its dominance in the region, saying the Quad is a U.S. attempt to create an Asian version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization directly aimed at counterbalancing its interests.

    Similar: QSD

  2. broadly A grouping of the United States, Japan, Australia, and India. But coordination in shifts in rates by global groupings like the Group of 7, the Indo-Pacific “Quad” and perhaps the Shangri-La Dialogue in Asia would send a powerful message.

Quad³

proper noun the Quad

  1. UK, historical A coalition committee that resolved party disputes during the Cameron–Clegg coalition.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: quadriceps, quadriceps femoris, space, quadrangle, quadruplet, court, dial, magic, campus, quadrilateral, quadripartite, quadruple, fourfold, quadrant, four, square

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MLA

"quad." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/quad. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

quad. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/quad

Chicago

"quad." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/quad.

BibTeX
@misc{quad_2026,
  title = {quad},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/quad},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}