Quota

How to spell quota

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce quota

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does quota mean?

1. nounA fixed share, number, or amount that is officially allotted to or required of a person or group.

Quota in a sentence

• The sales team hit its monthly quota a week early.

• The country set an import quota on foreign steel.

Where does quota come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Quota comes from the Latin phrase quota pars, which literally meant 'how great a part' or 'how large a share'. The key word is quotus, an adjective meaning 'of what number' or 'which in order', itself built on quot, meaning simply 'how many'. By the early 1600s English had clipped the phrase down to the single noun quota, taking on the sense of a proportional share assigned to each member of a group. The same quot root sits behind the everyday word 'quote', which originally meant to mark a book by reference number, and behind 'quotient', the result of one number divided by another. Because the word is short and keeps its plain Latin -a ending, the only real spelling decision is remembering the single t rather than doubling it.

How the word is built

• quot- (from Latin quotus: of what number)
• -a (noun ending)