Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having a likeness to something; resembling: a quasi success.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- As if; as it were; in a manner: used in introducing a proposed or possible explanation.
- A prefix or apparent adjective or adverb (and hence often written without the hyphen) meaning ‘seeming,’ ‘apparent’ (equivalent to ‘as it were,’ ‘in appearance,’ in predicate use), expressing some resemblance, but generally implying that what it qualifies is in some degree fictitious or unreal, or has not all the features of what it professes to be: as, a quasi-argument; a quasi-historical account. In construction and partly in sense it is like pseudo-.
Wiktionary
- adj. resembling or having a likeness to something
GNU Webster's 1913
- As if; as though; as it were; in a manner sense or degree; having some resemblance to; qualified; -- used as an adjective, or a prefix with a noun or an adjective.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having some resemblance
Etymologies
- From Latin quasi ("as if"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, as if, from Old French, from Latin quasi : quam, as; see kwo- in Indo-European roots + sī, if; see swo- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The difference is however that people are not randomly assigned to the different treatments; therefore the term quasi-experiment is used and the research is an observational study.”
“That's why I use the term quasi-protected class: homosexuals are gaining increasingly wider state and federal protections, but at the present time those protections are in no way proportional to those of other traditionally-protected groups.”
“MARTIN: Anderson, Obama needs to run what I call a quasi-general election, primary campaign.”
“In Greenleaf on Evidence, the writer in discussing "Writings", "Documents" and "Records", divides them into two classes - public and private, public writings being again subdivided into those which are public in every sense and those which he terms quasi public records.”
“Jan Brewer on Wednesday proposed abolishing the state Department of Commerce and replacing it with what she describes as a quasi-public agency.”
“If you know the business, you know they what I call quasi pharmaceuticals meaning that for years the government speaking from the U.S. did not treat them with the same severity that they did APIs but that's very quickly changing.”
“These Latin quasi-leftists are nothing if not retro.”
“On personal blogs and MySpace, people shared their experiences of sitting with Marina, often in quasi-religious or life-altering language.”
“But they beg the question: Is chic-ing around in quasi-military gear weird when there's real fighting going on?”
The Wall Street Journal: Military Chic During Wartime? Yes, Sir!
“Needs to be another GRRM series, set within quasi Austria.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘quasi’.
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Q words
Ever get stuck with the random bunch of letters and a q and not know any words? Well, maybe this will help.
quire, quais, quai, queer, quoit, quitrent, quipster, question, quest, questing, quests, quit and 208 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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phrontistery - q
from phrontistery.info
quoz, quotuple, quotum, quotition, quotiety, quotidian, quotha, quotennial, quotatious, quorate, quondam, quomodocunquize and 227 more...
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scrabble j q x z 4 and 5 letter words
revising for a competition 30 games
in 24 hours
5-Letter words with J, X, Q or Z
J
X
ADDAX ADMIX AFFIX ANNEX ATAXY AUXIN AXELS AXIAL AXILE AXILS A...azan, azon, boxy, brux, buzz, calx, chez, coax, coxa, cozy, crux, czar and 152 more...
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prefix (regular, compound, hyphenate)
cool prefixes to add to anything (noun, verb, adjective) to create a word, compound word or 2 word phrase.
examples: hyper = hypercharge ; phantom = phantom charge.
go...uber, super, hyper, phantom, mega, ultra, quantum, maxi, poli, exo, extra, multi and 25 more...
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Filter 1
Hard words level 1
besotted, altricial, consecrate, consternate, desuetude, detractor, dissolute, divisive, emaciated, enamored, ensconce, garishly and 76 more...
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Favorites
disparage, partisan, cupidity, hokum, tussle, odious, dastardly, overture, plane, chronic, peering, peer and 328 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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Not Quite The Real Thang
masquerade, sham, counterfeit, shyster, phoney, bogus, pseudo, artificial, fabricated, mock, concocted, false and 158 more...
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ginnylev's Words
neuroplasticity, repudiate, scintilla, ruminate, tautology, ombudsman, exigent, filibuster, grace, ambidextrous, amends, disclosure and 623 more...
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fbharjo's Words
jumelle, kef, kenspeckle, lautitious, essentic, pilpulistic, impavid, cicurant, clou, chrysostomic, miasma, teleology and 1625 more...
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Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 1999 more...
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2007bee-r03
antioxidant, rambla, trafficking, volplane, sluice, jettison, insomnolence, egyptiac, claque, provincial, satisfice, trumpery and 95 more...
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the hotlist
short, sweet, epic, catchy, sassy, sexy & sizzling.
( personal list, randomness )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/...zing, epic, win, fail, hot, warp, times, clip, onyx, wonky, pwn, leet and 1493 more...
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maymagreel's wourdes
cockamamey, anachronism, interment, highfalutin, bedraggled, specious, quasi, asymptote, heretofore, booby hatch, schooner, nasolabial and 15 more...
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phil vocab 2
tribunal, inculcation, confounds, indisputable, susceptible, faculty, hypothetical, heterogeneous, homogeneous, convention, fluctuation, incontinent and 38 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for quasi.

uselessness Not a fan.
I can barely tolerate pseudo- but this is just one step too far. People who say "quasi-" are just pretentious yuppies, the same group that does yoga and drinks chai and takes mud baths and thinks itself terribly sophisticated for it. Sorry, bub, more like terribly annoying. Go back to using the -ish suffix... it suits you better. :-P Feb 9, 2007
fbharjo another form of such - nisi
such meaning "so like" Feb 9, 2007