Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having a likeness to something; resembling.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • 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-.
  • As if; as it were; in a manner: used in introducing a proposed or possible explanation.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • 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.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective resembling or having a likeness to something

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having some resemblance

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, as if, from Old French, from Latin : quam, as; see kwo- in Indo-European roots + , if; see swo- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin quasi ("as if").

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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.

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows MarkBoukes 2010

  • 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.

    Original Signal - Transmitting Buzz 2009

  • MARTIN: Anderson, Obama needs to run what I call a quasi-general election, primary campaign.

    CNN Transcript Apr 22, 2008 2008

  • 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.

    Board of Visitors minutes 1948

  • 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.

    SeekingAlpha.com: Home Page 2010

  • Jan Brewer on Wednesday proposed abolishing the state Department of Commerce and replacing it with what she describes as a quasi-public agency.

    East Valley Tribune - Today's Top Stories 2010

  • Jan Brewer on Wednesday proposed abolishing the state Department of Commerce and replacing it with what she describes as a quasi-public agency.

    East Valley Tribune - Today's Top Stories 2010

  • 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.

    SeekingAlpha.com: Home Page 2010

  • These Latin quasi-leftists are nothing if not retro.

    Maul Scale | SciFi, Fantasy & Horror Collectibles 2009

  • On personal blogs and MySpace, people shared their experiences of sitting with Marina, often in quasi-religious or life-altering language.

    Interview: Marina Abramovic Sean O 2010

Comments

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  • another form of such - nisi

    such meaning "so like"

    February 9, 2007

  • 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

    February 9, 2007