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Q

[kyoo]

Example Sentences Origin

noun, plural Q's or Qs, q's or qs.

the 17th letter of the English alphabet, a consonant.

any spoken sound represented by the letter Q or q, as in quick, acquit, or Iraq.

something having the shape of a Q.

a written or printed representation of the letter Q or q.

a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter Q or q.

Example Sentences

Q did not say that the candidate should pay the cancellation fee.

Q fever is an infectious disease that is spread by domestic and wild animals and ticks.

Dictionary.com Unabridged

quarterly.

Chess. queen.

Symbol.

the 17th in order or in a series, or, when I is omitted, the 16th.

(sometimes lowercase) the medieval Roman numeral for 500. Compare Roman numerals.

Biochemistry. glutamine.

Physics. heat.

Thermodynamics. a unit of heat energy, equal to 10¹⁸ British thermal units (1.055 × 10²¹ joules).

EXPAND

Also called Q-factor. Electronics. the ratio of the reactance to the resistance of an electric circuit or component.

Biblical Criticism. the symbol for material common to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke that was not derived from the Gospel of Mark.

(in Guatemala) quetzal; quetzals.

farthing. Origin:
< Latin quadrāns

quart; quarts.

noun

Sir Arthur Thomas (“Q”), 1863–1944, English novelist and critic.

noun

An·son

[an-suhn] , 1798–1858, president of the Republic of Texas.

Ca·sey

[key-see] , (John Luther Jones), 1864–1900, U.S. locomotive engineer: folk hero of ballads, stories, and plays.

Chuck (Charles Martin Jones), 1912–2002, U.S. film animator.

Daniel, 1881–1967, English phonetician.

Ernest, 1879–1958, Welsh psychoanalyst.

EXPAND

(Everett) Le·Roi

[luh-roi, lee-roi] , original name of Imamu Amiri Baraka.

Henry Arthur, 1851–1929, English dramatist.

Howard Mum·ford

[muhm-ferd] , 1892–1980, U.S. educator and critic.

In·i·go

[in-i-goh] , 1573–1652, English architect.

10.

John Luther (“Casey”), 1864–1900, legendary U.S. locomotive engineer, raised in Cayce, Ky.

11.

John Paul (John Paul), 1747–92, American naval commander in the Revolutionary War, born in Scotland.

12.

John Win·ston

[win-stuhn] , 1791–1848, U.S. politician: Speaker of the House 1843–45.

13.

Mary Harris (“Mother Jones”), 1830–1930, U.S. labor leader, born in Ireland.

14.

Quincy (Delight) (“Q”), born 1933, U.S. jazz musician, filmcomposerand producer.

15.

Robert Edmond, 1887–1954, U.S. set designer.

16.

Robert Tyre

[tahy^uhr] (“Bobby”), 1902–71, U.S. golfer.

17.

Rufus Matthew, 1863–1948, U.S. Quaker, teacher, author, and humanitarian.

18.

Sir William, 1746–94, English jurist, linguist, and Sanskrit scholar.

COLLAPSE

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To Q

Collins

World English Dictionary

q or Q (kjuː)

—n , pl q's, Q's, Qs
1.	the 17th letter and 13th consonant of the modern English alphabet
2.	a speech sound represented by this letter, in English usually a voiceless velar stop, as in unique and quick

Q or Q

—n

q or Q (kjuː)

—n , pl q's, Q's, Qs
1.	the 17th letter and 13th consonant of the modern English alphabet
2.	a speech sound represented by this letter, in English usually a voiceless velar stop, as in unique and quick

Q or Q

—n

q

—*symbol for*
	quintal

Q

—*symbol for*
1.	chess queen
2.	question
3.	physics heat

—*abbreviation for*
4.	text messaging queue

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

16th letter of the classical Roman alphabet, from the Phoenician equivalent of Heb. koph, which was used for the more guttural of the two "k" sounds in Semitic. The letter existed, but was little used and not alphabetized, in Gk.; the stereotypical connection with -u- began in Latin. Anglo-Saxon scribes

EXPAND

adopted the habit at first, but later used spellings with cw- or cu-. The qu- pattern returned to Eng. with the Norman Conquest. Scholars use -q- alone to transliterate Sem. koph (e.g. Quran, Qatar, Iraq). In Christian theology, Q has been used since 1901 to signify the hypothetical source of passages shared by Matthew and Luke, but not in Mark; probably it is an abbreviation of Ger. Quelle "source."

Jones

for the surname, see John. Phrase keep up with the Joneses (1913, Amer.Eng.) is from the title of a comic strip by Arthur R. Momand. The slang sense "intense desire, addiction" (1968) probably arose from earlier use of Jones as a synonym for "heroin," presumably from the proper name, but the connection,

if any, is obscure.

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

jones (jōnz)
n.

Heroin.
An addiction, especially to heroin.

Slang Dictionary

jones definition

n.
a thing; a problem. (A generic name for an unknown person or thing.) : This get-rich-quick jones will land you in the joint, Lefty.
n.
a drug habit; drug addiction. (Drugs. See also skag jones.) : That jones is really riding that guy.
n.
a desire for someone or something; a craving. : He has a real jones for chocolate.
tv.
to crave something. : He's jonesing chocolate pretty bad.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source

FOLDOC

Computing Dictionary

Q definition

language
A very high level language by Per Bothner based on lazy generalised sequences. Q has lexical scope, and some support for logic programming[?] and constraint programming. The language includes small subsets of Common Lisp and Scheme.
Q was a test-bed for programming language ideas. Where APL uses arrays for looping, Q uses generalised sequences which may be infinite and may be stored or calculated on demand. It has macros, primitives to run programs, and an interactive command language.
Q is implemented in C++, and comes with an interpreter, compiler framework, libraries, and documentation. It runs on Linux and SUN-4 and should work on any 32-bit Unix.
Latest version: 1, as of 1993-06-07. Development stopped in 1994.
(http://kelso.bothner.com/~per/software/#Q ).
E-mail: Per Bothner .
(2000-05-22)

American Heritage

Abbreviations & Acronyms

q
charge