quoin

C2+ Topic:General Vocabulary

US /kɔɪn/ UK /kɔɪn/ See IPA manual

Homophones

coign /kɔɪn/

Meanings

1

noun
an external corner of a building, or a wedge used to lock type

The mason set heavy stone quoins at each corner of the wall.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · an external corner of a... cornerstone cornerkeystonewedge angle

Word family

Related forms coin coigncuneiform

Etymology

A variant spelling of coin, from Old French coing ('wedge, corner, die for stamping'), from Latin cuneus ('wedge').

coing Old French cuneus Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# quoin

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /kɔɪn/
**IPA (UK):** /kɔɪn/

## Meanings
1. an external corner of a building, or a wedge used to lock type

## Examples
- The mason set heavy stone quoins at each corner of the wall.

## Synonyms
- cornerstone
- corner
- keystone
- wedge
- angle

## Related Forms
- coin
- coign
- cuneiform

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: coing
- Root: cuneus

## Etymology
A variant spelling of coin, from Old French coing ('wedge, corner, die for stamping'), from Latin cuneus ('wedge').

## AI Etymology
Quoin is a variant spelling of coin, from Old French coing ('wedge, corner, die for stamping'), from Latin cuneus ('wedge'). The historical chain includes Old French coing and Latin cuneus. Older glosses in the chain include "wedge, corner, die for stamping" and "wedge", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, quoin is best read as borrowing, yielding an English noun shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a noun, with the sense "an external corner of a building, or a wedge used to lock type". related forms include coin, coign, and cuneiform. The result is an English noun whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

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