⚡ Quick summary
The word quite is an adverb that means “totally” or “really” (as in It was quite easy), while the word quiet is most commonly used as an adjective to describe things that aren’t making noise.
The words quite and quiet look similar, but they are quite different when it comes to meaning and usage.
In this article, we will define quite and quite, explain how they are used differently, and provide example sentences that show how we typically use them.
quite vs. quiet
The word quite is an adverb that means “completely,” “actually,” or “to a great degree.”
Here are some examples of these meanings:
- The report wasn’t quite done, but I had to submit it anyway.
- Going from bankruptcy to industry leader was quite a turnaround for the company.
- Elephants are quite large animals.
The word quiet is used as an adjective, verb, and noun to refer to a lack of noise or a peaceful situation.
For example:
- Adjective: We need to be quiet so we don’t wake up the dog.
- Verb: You must quiet down when you are in the library.
- Noun: A loud buzzing noise disturbed the calm quiet.
To help keep quite and quiet separate, remember that quite is only used as an adverb, while quiet is never used as an adverb. For example, we can say that it was a quiet night, but it doesn’t make sense to say it was a quite night. We can also say that something is quite quiet, but we wouldn’t describe something as being quiet quite.
Examples of quite and quiet in a sentence
Let’s quietly look at some examples that show how we typically use quite and quiet in sentences.
- My sister is quite tall and needs to bend down when entering doors.
- Tim is a quiet man who rarely says a word.
- Watson wasn’t quite sure if Holmes had caught the right culprit.
- The zookeeper quieted the monkeys by giving them bananas.
- The stealthy ninjas were quite quiet as they snuck into the castle.
