quasi

See also: quasi-

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin quasi (“as if”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkweɪzaɪ/, /ˈkweɪsaɪ/, /ˈkwɑːzi/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɑːˌzaɪ/, /ˈkwɑːzi/, /ˈkwɑːsi/, /ˈkweɪˌzaɪ/, /ˈkweɪˌsaɪ/
• Rhymes: -ɑːzi, -ɑːsi
• Homophone: quasi-

Adjective

quasi (not comparable)

1. Resembling or having a likeness to the named thing.
   • 1998, The Pentagon Wars:

     So in summation gentlemen. What you have before you is a troop transport that can't carry troops, a reconnaissance vehicle that's too conspicuous to do reconnaissance, and a quasi tank that has less armor than a snowblower, god has enough ammo to take out half of D.C.

   • 2000, Henry Martyn Robert with Sarah Corbin Robert, Robert's Rules of Order, 10th revised edition, page 522:

     The presiding officer of the assembly does not appoint a chairman of the quasi committee, but remains in the chair himself throughout its proceedings.

   • 2012 December, S. Shunmuga Krishnan, Ramesh K. Sitaraman, “Video Stream Quality Impacts Viewer Behavior: Inferring Causality Using Quasi-Experimental Designs”, in CNN en Español‎^[1], archived from the original on 23 January 2026, page 3:

     In a quasi experiment, the likelihood of a viewer of short video abandoning earlier than a similar viewer of a long video exceeded the likelihood that the opposite happens by 11.5%.

Derived terms

• quasi corporation
• quasi partner

Related terms

• quasi-

Translations

showing likeness

• Bulgarian: почти (bg) (počti), полу (polu)
• Danish: kvasi-
• Dutch: quasi-
• Esperanto: kvazaŭ (eo)
• Georgian: კვაზი (ḳvazi), თითქოს (titkos), ვაი (vai), თითქმის (titkmis)
• German: quasi (de)
• Greek: οιονεί (el) (oioneí)
• Italian: quasi (it)
• Norwegian: kvasi- (no)
• Slovak: kvázi
• Spanish: cuasi (es)

Further reading

• “quasi”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “quasi”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Catalan

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin quasi.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈkwa.zi]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Adverb

quasi

1. almost, nearly, quasi

   Synonym: gairebé

Related terms

• quasi-

Further reading

• “quasi”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “quasi”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “quasi” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “quasi” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Dutch

Alternative forms

• kwasi (before 1996)

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin quasi (“as if”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkʋaːzi/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adverb

quasi

1. quasi

Synonyms

• alsof

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin quasi.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.zi/

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Agen)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Adverb

quasi

1. almost, nearly

   Synonym: presque

Further reading

• “quasi”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Anagrams

• quais

German

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin quasi, initially officialese, later spreading into more colloquial registers.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkvaːzi/, [ˈkʋaːzi]

• Audio (Austria):

  (file)

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

Adverb

quasi

1. as it were, so to speak, effectively, essentially; used to mark a description as figurative, simplified or otherwise not to be taken as absolute, but illustrative of an important point

   Synonyms: gewissermaßen, gleichsam, sozusagen

2. as good as, basically, virtually, more or less; used to describe a process or change of state that has not been technically completed, but the remainder is considered minor or a mere formality

   Synonyms: so gut wie, im Prinzip, mehr oder weniger

   Ich bin mit dem Studium quasi fertig.

   I'm as good as done with my degree.

Further reading

• “quasi” in Duden online
• “quasi” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Italian

Etymology

Inherited from Latin quasi. The final -i seems to hint towards the word being borrowed or semi-learned, but it's not uncommon for Italian to shift final -e to -i in invariable words (cf. avanti, dieci, tardi, etc.).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkwa.zi/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -azi
• Hyphenation: quà‧si

Adverb

quasi

1. almost, nearly

   Synonyms: circa, poco meno che, pressoché, per poco non

Adjective

quasi (invariable)

1. almost

   ti presento il mio quasi marito

   meet my almost-husband

Conjunction

quasi

1. (followed by subjunctive) as if

   Synonym: quasiché

   dà continuamente ordini quasi fosse lui il padrone

   he continually gives orders as if he were the boss

Derived terms

• quasiché
• quasimente
• quasi quasi

Latin

Alternative forms

• quasei, quansei (Old Latin)

Etymology

Univerbation of quam (“how, as”) +‎ sī (“if”) with clitic shortening of the first vowel and iambic shortening of the second.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkʷa.siː], [ˈkʷa.sɪ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkʷaː.s̬i]
• Note: still found with the long final syllable in Lucretius, and again in late Latin poets.

Conjunction

quasī̆

1. almost as if; like; as it were

   Synonyms: ceu, (perinde) ac sī, tanquam, velut, ut, sīcut

   quasi vērō nesciam! ― as if I don't know!

2. (Late Latin) on the grounds that

   quasi praedam male divisisset ― on that grounds that he had poorly divided the plunder

Descendants

• Balkano-Romance:
  • Romanian: ca și
• Italo-Dalmatian:
  • Italian: quasi
  • Old Venetan: asques (Trevignano), squasio
  • Sicilian: quasi, squasi
• Gallo-Italic:
  • Old Lombard: quaxe
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Old Catalan: quaix
  • Old Occitan: quaisses, cais
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: acais

Borrowings:

• → Asturian: cuasi
• → Dutch: quasi
• → English: quasi
• → Esperanto: kvazaŭ
• → French: quasi
• → Galician: case
• → German: quasi
• → Portuguese: quase
• → Romanian: cvasi
• → Spanish: casi, cuasi

References

• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002), “quasi”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 2: C Q K, page 1428

Further reading

• “quasi”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “quasi”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "quasi", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “quasi”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to obscure the mental vision: mentis quasi luminibus officere (vid. sect. XIII. 6) or animo caliginem offundere
    
  • to represent a thing dramatically: sic exponere aliquid, quasi agatur res (non quasi narretur)
    
  • to make a cursory mention of a thing; to mention by the way (not obiter or in transcursu): quasi praeteriens, in transitu attingere aliquid
    
  • belief in God is part of every one's nature: omnibus innatum est et in animo quasi insculptum esse deum
    
  • I said en passant, by the way: dixi quasi praeteriens or in transitu
    

Norman

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin quasi.

Adverb

quasi

1. almost, nearly

Portuguese

Adverb

quasi (not comparable)

1. pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of quase
   • 1930 January 2, “Os novos medicos evangelicos realizaram um culto de Acção de Graças [The new evangelical doctors performed a Thanksgiving ceremony]”, in Correio da Manhã, volume XXIX, number 10741, Rio de Janeiro, page 7:

     Com a presença de avultadissimo numero de membros de quasi todas as egrejas evangelicas desta capital e de Nictheroy, o programma do culto teve inicio pouco depois das 4 horas […]

     With the presence of a very large number of members from almost all the evangelical churches of this capital and Niterói, the worship program began shortly after 4 o’clock.