quota

English

Etymology

From Latin quota pars; see Latin quota.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkwəʊ.tə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈkwoʊ.tə/, [ˈkwoʊ.ɾə]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈkwəʉ.tə/, [ˈkwəʉ.ɾə]
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɐʉ.tə/, [ˈkwɐʉ.ɾə]
• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ˈk(w)oʈɑ/
• Rhymes: -əʊtə, -oʊtə

Noun

quota (plural quotas)

1. A proportional part or share; the share or proportion assigned to each in a division.
2. A prescribed number or percentage that may serve as, for example, a maximum, a minimum, or a goal.
   • 2012 May 27, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club‎^[1], archived from the original on 30 January 2013:

     The episode’s unwillingness to fully commit to the pathos of the Bart-and-Laura subplot is all the more frustrating considering its laugh quota is more than filled by a rollicking B-story that finds Homer, he of the iron stomach and insatiable appetite, filing a lawsuit against The Frying Dutchman when he’s hauled out of the eatery against his will after consuming all of the restaurant’s shrimp (plus two plastic lobsters).

   • 2020 October 30, "Olimar's Assignment", in Pikmin 3 Deluxe, Nintendo, Nintendo Switch, day 3: River:

     Captain Olimar: 'We have to work harder on finding some truly valuable treasures. The sooner we hit our quota, the sooner I can get back to my wife and kids on Hocotate.'

   • 2026 April 28, Jon Gambrell, “United Arab Emirates will leave OPEC in a blow to the oil cartel”, in AP News‎^[2], archived from the original on 29 April 2026:

     The UAE’s decision had been rumored as a possibility for some time, as it pushed back in recent years against OPEC production quotas it felt had been too low — meaning it wasn’t able to sell as much oil to the world as it had wanted.

3. (business, economics) A restriction on the import of something to a specific quantity.

Synonyms

• (proportional part): allocation, allotment, apportionment, quotum

Derived terms

• antiquota
• nonquota
• quota-hopping
• quotaism
• quotaless
• quotalike
• quota quickie
• quota refugee

Translations

proportional part or share; share or proportion assigned to each in a division

• Arabic: حِصَّة f (ḥiṣṣa), سَهْم (ar) m (sahm), نِسْبَة (ar) f (nisba)
• Bengali: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: квота (bg) f (kvota)
• Czech: kvóta (cs) f
• Danish: kvote
• Dutch: quotum (nl) n
• Finnish: kiintiö (fi)
• Galician: cota (gl) f
• Georgian: კვოტა (ḳvoṭa), წილი (c̣ili)
• German: Quote (de) f, Anteil (de) m, Teilmenge (de) f
• Hiligaynon: kuota
• Hungarian: kvóta (hu), korlát (hu), limit (hu), kontingens (hu), hányad (hu), részesedés (hu), szükséges számarány/​szavazatarány
• Irish: cuóta m
• Latin: quota f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kvote (no) m

  Nynorsk: kvote m

• Persian: سهم (fa) (sahm), سهمیه (fa) (sahmiye)
• Polish: dola (pl) f, przydział (pl) m
• Portuguese: cota (pt) f, quota (pt) f
• Romanian: cotă (ro)
• Russian: до́ля (ru) f (dólja), кво́та (ru) f (kvóta)
• Sicilian: còtima f
• Spanish: cuota (es) f
• Swedish: andel (sv) c, kvot (sv) c
• Turkish: kontenjan (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: حصه (hisse)

• Yiddish: קוואָטע f (kvote)

prescribed number or percentage

• Arabic: حِصَّة f (ḥiṣṣa), نَصِيب مُقَرَّر m (naṣīb muqarrar), حِصَّة مُخَصَّصَة f (ḥiṣṣa muḵaṣṣaṣa)

  Egyptian Arabic: كُوتَة f (kōta)

• Bengali: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: норма (bg) f (norma)
• Chinese:

  Hokkien: khò͘-tah

  Mandarin: 配額 / 配额 (zh) (pèi'é)

• Czech: kvóta (cs) f
• Dutch: quotum (nl) n
• Finnish: kiintiö (fi)
• German: Quote (de) f, Kontingent n, (gleiche) Teilmenge f
• Hiligaynon: kuota
• Hungarian: irányszám (hu), keretszám (hu), kvóta (hu)
• Italian: quota (it) f
• Japanese: 割当 (ja) (わりあて, wariate), 割り当て (ja) (わりあて, wariate), クォータ (kwōta)
• Korean: 할당량 (haldangnyang), 쿼터 (kwoteo)
• Latin: pensum n
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kvote (no) m

  Nynorsk: kvote m

• Persian: سهم (fa) (sahm)
• Polish: norma (pl) f
• Russian: кво́та (ru) f (kvóta), но́рма (ru) f (nórma)
• Swedish: kvot (sv) c
• Tagalog: kota (tl), kwota
• Turkish: kota (tr)
• Yiddish: קוואָטע f (kvote)

form of protectionism

• Bulgarian: квота (bg) f (kvota)
• Czech: kvóta (cs) f
• Finnish: kiintiö (fi)
• French: quota (fr) m
• German: Quote (de) f, Zuteilung (de) f, Kontingent n, Beschränkung (de) f
• Hiligaynon: kuota
• Hungarian: kontingens (hu), kvóta (hu)
• Italian: contingente (it) m
• Polish: kontyngent (pl) m
• Portuguese: quota (pt) f
• Russian: кво́та (ru) f (kvóta), ограниче́ние (ru) n (ograničénije)
• Spanish: cuota de importación f, contingente (es) m
• Swedish: importkvot c, kvot (sv) c
• Yiddish: קוואָטע f (kvote)

See also

• numerus clausus

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin quota pars. Doublet of cota, a semi-learned borrowing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈkwɔ.tə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈkwɔ.ta]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Noun

quota f (plural quotes)

1. share, portion (of a shared payment)
2. fee, dues

   La quota per ser soci és de 35 euros anuals per família. ― The fee to be a member is 35 euros a year per family.

3. (business) quota

Further reading

• “quota”, 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

Chinese

Etymology

From English quota.

Pronunciation

• Cantonese (Jyutping): kou¹ taa² / kou¹ taa⁴ / kwou¹ taa² / kwou¹ taa⁴

---

• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: kou¹ taa² / kou¹ taa⁴ / kwou¹ taa² / kwou¹ taa⁴
    • Yale: kōu tá / kōu tàh / kwōu tá / kwōu tàh
    • Cantonese Pinyin: kou¹ taa² / kou¹ taa⁴ / kwou¹ taa² / kwou¹ taa⁴
    • Guangdong Romanization: kou¹ ta² / kou¹ ta⁴ / kuou¹ ta² / kuou¹ ta⁴
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /kʰou̯⁵⁵ tʰaː³⁵/, /kʰou̯⁵⁵ tʰaː²¹/, /kʷʰou̯⁵⁵ tʰaː³⁵/, /kʷʰou̯⁵⁵ tʰaː²¹/

Noun

quota

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) quota (prescribed maximum amount); limit (Classifier: 個／个 c)

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkʋoː.taː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: quo‧ta
• Rhymes: -oːtaː

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Medieval Latin quota, from quota pars.

Noun

quota m or f (plural quota's, no diminutive)

1. synonym of quotum

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

quota

1. plural of quotum

References

• van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “quota”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute
• Matthias de Vries; Lambert Allard te Winkel (1864), “quota”, in Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, published 2001

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.ta/, /kwɔ.ta/ (less common)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

Noun

quota m (plural quotas)

1. quota

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• toqua

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkwɔ.ta/
• Rhymes: -ɔta
• Hyphenation: quò‧ta

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Latin quotader.

Italian quota

Derived from Latin quota.

Noun

quota f (plural quote)

1. share, amount, part
2. fee, instalment/installment, dues
3. height, altitude, level
4. depth
5. quota

Derived terms

• quotare

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

quota

1. inflection of quotare:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

References

• quota in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Latin

Etymology 1

From quota pars. See quotus.

Pronunciation

• quota:
  • (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkʷɔ.ta]
  • (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkʷɔː.ta]

Noun

quota f (genitive quotae); first declension

1. (Medieval Latin) A percentage of yield owed to the authority as a form of taxation
2. (New Latin) A quota, a proportional part or share; the share or proportion assigned to each in a division.

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	quota	quotae
genitive	quotae	quotārum
dative	quotae	quotīs
accusative	quotam	quotās
ablative	quotā	quotīs
vocative	quota	quotae

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• quota:
  • (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkʷɔ.ta]
  • (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkʷɔː.ta]

Adjective

quota

1. inflection of quotus:
   1. nominative/vocative feminine singular
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter plural
2. ablative feminine singular of quotus

References

• "quota", 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)

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.tɐ/, /ˈkwɔ.tɐ/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.tɐ/, /ˈkwɔ.tɐ/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.ta/, /ˈkwɔ.ta/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.tɐ/, /ˈkwɔ.tɐ/

• Rhymes: -ɔtɐ
• Hyphenation: quo‧ta

Noun

quota f (plural quotas)

1. alternative spelling of cota (“quota”)

Derived terms

• quota-parte

Further reading

• “quota”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “quota”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Spanish

Noun

quota f (plural quotas)

1. obsolete spelling of cuota