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quintal

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quintal¹

  • /ˈkwɪntl/ US
  • /ˈkwɪnl/ US
  • /ˈkwɪntl/ UK
  • /ˈkwɪntəl/ UK

Rhymes with (Received Pronunciation) -ɪntəl

Where it comes from

Late Middle English, from Anglo-Norman quintal, from Middle French quintal, from Old French and Medieval Latin quintale and quintallus (“various medieval hundredweights”), from Arabic قِنْطَار (qinṭār, “100 rottols”), from Classical Syriac ܩܰܢܛܺܝܪܳܐ (qanṭīrā) and ܩܰܢܛܺܝܢܳܪܳܐ (qanṭīnārā), from Medieval Greek κεντηνάριον (kentēnárion), from Latin centēnārium (“100 Roman pounds”), from the neuter of centēnārius (“having 100 things”). Use for various non-English units, borrowed from French quintal, Spanish quintal, Portuguese quintal, etc. The apparent relation to quint- (“five, fivefold”) and -al (forming adjectives) is accidental, although it possibly influenced the eventual spelling of the term. Doublet of centenary, centner, and kantar.

noun quintals

  1. historical Synonym of hundredweight, 100 or 112 English or American pounds. In one import license alone, the merchant in question was instructed to bring in 13,000 quintals of alum, which, snapped up by industries in England and the Low Countries, would yield the king a cool £8,666 13s 4d.

    Similar: hundredweight, 100 or 112 English or American pounds

  2. historical Various other similar units of weight in other systems.
  3. An unofficial metric unit equal to 100 kg.

quintal²

  • /ˈkwɪntl/ US
  • /ˈkwɪnl/ US
  • /ˈkwɪntl/ UK
  • /ˈkwɪntəl/ UK

Rhymes with (Received Pronunciation) -ɪntəl

Where it comes from

From quint- (“five, fivefold”) + -al (forming adjectives).

noun quintals

  1. A grammatical number referring to five (or more) things. Furthermore, if the number-incorporated pronouns are analyzed as grammatically marked for number, distinct grammatical categories for trial, quadral and quintal must be posited.

adjective

  1. not comparable Referring to five (or more) things; of, in or relating to the quintal grammatical number. What Table 4 does not show is the possibility of even "quadral" and "quintal" forms, like yufopela 'you four', 'the four of you', yufaipela 'you five', 'the five of you'.

Quintal³

proper noun Quintals

  1. A surname.

Translations

Every language

noun metric quintal of 100 kg

Españolquintal métrico, quintal
हिन्दीक्विंटल kviṇṭal, कुंटल kuṇṭal, कुंतल kuntal
Portuguêsquintal
Françaisquintal
DeutschQuintal, Dezitonne
Italianoquintale
Românăchintal
Русскийце́нтнер céntner

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MLA

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

APA

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

Chicago

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

BibTeX
@misc{quintal_2026,
  title = {quintal},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/quintal},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}