q-u-a-r-t-e-r
QUARTER means one-fourth of something, a 25-cent coin, a district or area, or to divide into four parts.
16
Points in Scrabble
Base tile values • No multipliers applied
QUARTER exemplifies how a single word can span mathematics, money, geography, and time. As a fraction, it represents one-fourth (1/4) - a fundamental division that appears everywhere from recipes to financial reports. As currency, the quarter is America's workhorse coin, more common in circulation than any other.
In urban geography, quarters are distinct districts: the French Quarter in New Orleans, the Jewish Quarter in Prague, artists' quarters worldwide. These neighborhoods often preserve historical character while evolving with modern life. In time, quarters divide our year into seasons and business cycles.
As a verb, to quarter means to divide into four parts, but historically meant providing lodging for soldiers - "quartering troops." In heraldry, quartering divides shields to display multiple coats of arms. From quarterly earnings to football quarters, this word structures how we measure, divide, and organize our world.
"Quarter" derives from Latin "quartarius," meaning "fourth part," from "quartus" (fourth). The word entered English via Old French "quartier" in the 13th century. Initially meaning one-fourth, it expanded to mean lodgings (dividing buildings into quarters), then military housing, city districts, and mercy shown to defeated enemies ("giving quarter" - sparing their lives). The coin sense emerged in 1783 with the first U.S. quarter dollar. The time sense (quarter-hour, quarter-year) developed from dividing clock faces and calendars into fourths.
•The Q (10 points) in QUARTER makes it particularly valuable
•High-value letters should be saved for double or triple letter score squares when possible
•QUARTER can be a game-winning play when used strategically
•US quarters feature different designs - the 50 State Quarters program was the most successful coin collecting program in history
""I played QUARTER on a triple word score and earned a huge number of points.""
""QUARTER is one of those words that can really boost your score in word games.""
"The company's profits rose 15% in the third quarter of the fiscal year."
"She lived in the historic quarter where cobblestone streets told centuries-old stories."
Total base points: 16 (Scrabble)
Vowels: 3 | Consonants: 4
The U.S. quarter (25 cents) is the most widely used coin in circulation. Its size and value make it perfect for vending machines, parking meters, and laundromats. "Got a quarter?" became a cultural phrase for small favors.
From 1932-1998, quarters featured George Washington. The 50 State Quarters program (1999-2008) released five new designs yearly, sparking a collecting frenzy. Later programs honored territories, national parks, and American women.
Quarters shaped American life: arcade games cost "a quarter," phone calls from payphones, jukeboxes playing "three for a quarter." The coin became a unit of cultural transaction beyond its monetary value.
Canada's quarter features a caribou, while historical quarters worldwide showcased national symbols. The concept of a 25-cent piece is relatively unique - most currencies use 20-cent coins instead.
One-quarter (1/4, 0.25, 25%) represents a fundamental mathematical concept. This division appears naturally: compass directions (NE, NW, SE, SW), moon phases, and even musical time (quarter notes).
Fiscal quarters (Q1-Q4) structure business reporting. Companies release quarterly earnings, creating rhythms in stock markets. "Making the quarter" drives corporate behavior, for better or worse.
Quarter-hours mark our clocks (15, 30, 45 minutes). Academic quarters divide school years. Sports use quarters to structure games, from basketball's four quarters to football's dramatic "fourth quarter."
Quarter-inches in carpentry, quarter-miles in track, quarter-pounds in cooking - the fraction provides convenient human-scale divisions across all measurement systems.
Medieval cities divided into quarters for administration: merchants' quarters, Jewish quarters, foreign quarters. These divisions often reflected trade guilds, religions, or nationalities, creating distinct neighborhood characters preserved today.
The French Quarter (New Orleans) pulses with jazz and Creole culture. Paris's Latin Quarter housed universities since medieval times. Jerusalem's four quarters (Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Armenian) embody the city's complex history.
Today's quarters blend history with contemporary life: arts quarters attract galleries, quarters become tourist destinations, tech quarters emerge in cities worldwide. These districts create urban villages within metropolises.
"Quarters" also means living space - from servants' quarters to officers' quarters. This usage stems from dividing buildings into fourths but evolved to mean any designated living area.
In warfare, "giving quarter" meant sparing defeated enemies' lives. "No quarter" signaled fight to the death. Pirates flew the "no quarter" flag - solid red, even more feared than the skull and crossbones.
The Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits quartering soldiers in private homes - a direct response to British practices. This historical grievance shaped modern privacy rights.
Medieval execution by quartering involved dividing the body into four parts - a gruesome punishment for treason. This practice gave us the phrase "drawn and quartered" for extreme punishment.
QUARTER uses Q in the traditional QU pairing, making it easier to play than Q words requiring unusual combinations. With Q worth 10 points, QUARTER delivers 16 base points - excellent for a common word.
Beyond Q, all letters in QUARTER are common (U-A-R-T-E-R all worth 1 point). This makes QUARTER achievable even with limited exotic tiles, unlike words requiring multiple high-value letters.
QUARTER extends to QUARTERS (+9), QUARTERED, QUARTERLY. The -ER ending creates opportunities for perpendicular plays. Consider related forms: QUART, QUARTET.
Practice unscrambling letters to find more high-scoring words like QUARTER