Basic+ Word of the Day: quite

quite (adverb) LISTEN

The house is quite modern.

Quite means ‘very,’ ‘extremely’ or ‘completely.’

  • I'm quite hungry! When is dinner?

We often use the word quite to mean ‘a lot, but not completely.’

  • It's quite difficult, but not impossible.

When we use not quite, it means ‘almost, but not completely.’

  • Can you wait two minutes? I'm not quite finished.

Don't confuse it with

If something is quiet, it means that it is soft and doesn’t make a lot of noise. The opposite of quiet is loud. For example, “The street is quiet at night. During the day it is loud because the cars and people make a lot of noise.”

In pop culture

Do you know the song “I Love You Baby”? Listen for the lyric, “I love you baby, and if it’s quite alright, I need you baby.” We can say, “If it’s quite alright” if we want someone’s permission for something. (Alright means ‘OK.’)

There are other meanings of quite.

Word of the Day is released Monday through Friday.

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