# How do you pronounce "quark"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 3, 2006, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-quark/371267 "2006-09-03T02:45:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-quark/371267/1 "2006-09-03T02:45:16Z")
Chances are, if you’re a physicist, you pronounce it to rhyme with “park.” And if you’re a graphic designer, you pronounce it to rhyme with “pork.” I pronounce it both ways, depending on context. And by the way, is there any other word that ends with “ark” that \*\*\*ever \*\*\*rhymes with “pork”? ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-quark/371267/2 "2006-09-03T03:55:41Z")
But it \*is \*quark-like-park, because of “Three quarks for Muster Mark”. Simple! Where’s the confusion? Silly graphics designers… ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Rosewater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/898d66/32.png) [@Mr.Rosewater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Rosewater)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-quark/371267/3 "2006-09-03T03:59:19Z")
[QUOTE=Dervorin] Silly graphics designers… [/QUOTE] Quarks are for kids? ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-quark/371267/4 "2006-09-03T04:31:04Z")
[QUOTE=panache45] Chances are, if you’re a physicist, you pronounce it to rhyme with “park.” And if you’re a graphic designer, you pronounce it to rhyme with “pork.” I pronounce it both ways, depending on context. And by the way, is there any other word that ends with “ark” that \*\*\*ever \*\*\*rhymes with “pork”? [/QUOTE] Seriously? I mean, don’t get me wrong – pork has many, many fine uses, both industrially and around the house. But rhyming with “quark” simply isn’t one of them. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-quark/371267/5 "2006-09-03T06:06:03Z")
“Throatwarbler Mangrove.” ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-quark/371267/6 "2006-09-03T07:14:30Z")
I don’t know why, but I’ve always pronounced it (at least mentally) to rhyme with “pork.” I first encountered it in studying physics, but in recent years I’ve encountered it far more often in relation to graphic design. ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-quark/371267/7 "2006-09-03T10:51:43Z")
[QUOTE=jackelope] I don’t know why, but I’ve always pronounced it (at least mentally) to rhyme with “pork.” I first encountered it in studying physics, but in recent years I’ve encountered it far more often in relation to graphic design. [/QUOTE] If you’d first encountered it reading Ulysses, you’d have rhymed it with Mark. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-quark/371267/8 "2006-09-03T10:54:14Z")
Physics: to rhyme with park. Graphic design in Ireland: to rhyme with pork. Graphic design in UK: to rhyme with park. Yoghurt-type product: to rhyme with pork. It’s very confusing. ---
**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-quark/371267/9 "2006-09-03T11:09:42Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] Yoghurt-type product: to rhyme with pork. [/QUOTE] You have that in English? Interesting. I remember English speakers who didn’t know a good translation for German “Quark” (rhymes with “park”) but perhaps they were Americans. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-quark/371267/10 "2006-09-03T16:35:26Z")
[QUOTE=panache45] Chances are, if you’re a physicist, you pronounce it to rhyme with “park.” And if you’re a graphic designer, you pronounce it to rhyme with “pork.” I pronounce it both ways, depending on context. And by the way, is there any other word that ends with “ark” that \*\*\*ever \*\*\*rhymes with “pork”? [/QUOTE] I have watched “Trading Spouses” exactly twice, and both times it was the same episode, with a kind of laid-back, New Age mother trading places with fundamentalist Christian virago. Towards the end of the show, she launches into a complete foam-flecked tirade about the other family, condemning them all for being from the “dork side.” It took me a couple of minutes to figure out she was saying “dark side.” I don’t know if that’s regional pronunciation or not. I can’t remember where she was from. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-quark/371267/11 "2006-09-03T17:34:25Z")
[QUOTE=seosamh] If you’d first encountered it reading Ulysses, you’d have rhymed it with Mark. [/QUOTE] Or _Finnegans Wake_, even. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-quark/371267/12 "2006-09-03T17:43:49Z")
If you’re buying it in continental Europe and sticking it on your muesli it’s “Kvark.” ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-quark/371267/13 "2006-09-03T18:56:14Z")
I’ve always rhymed it with “park.” Astrophysicist Jim Webb knows better than to quive on a quarkway, though. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-quark/371267/14 "2006-09-03T20:56:10Z")
I suspect people tend to rhyme “quark” with “pork” because of familiarity with other words beginning with “quar-” such as “quart,” “quarry,” “quarter,” “quarrel,” in which the “a” tends to be pronounced as in “war.” ---
**Author:** ![Mame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/858c86/32.png) [@Mame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mame)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-quark/371267/15 "2006-09-05T04:13:36Z")
I thought it rhymed with park. Never heard anyone use the “pork” version. Old joke: What is a quark? The noise made by a VERY well bred duck. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-quark/371267/16 "2006-09-05T12:11:18Z")
I rhyme it with ‘park’ and I’m a Graphic Designer\* \*a British one though, if that make’s a difference.