Quart vs. Pint

Main Difference

The main difference between Quart and Pint is that the Quart is a unit of volume and Pint is a imperial and customary unit of measurement.

• Quart

  The quart (abbreviation qt.) is an English unit of volume equal to a quarter gallon. It is divided into two pints or four cups. Historically, the exact size of the quart has varied with the different values of gallons over time and in reference to different commodities. Presently, three kinds of quarts remain in use: the liquid quart and dry quart of the US customary system and the imperial quart of the British imperial system. All are roughly equal to one metric liter.

• Pint

  The pint (symbol pt, sometimes abbreviated as “p”) is a unit of volume or capacity in both the imperial and United States customary measurement systems. In both of those systems it is traditionally one-eighth of a gallon. The British imperial pint is about 20% larger than the American pint because the two systems are defined differently. Almost all other countries have standardized on the metric system, so the size of what may be called a pint varies depending on local custom.

  The imperial pint (≈ 568 ml) is used in the United Kingdom and Ireland and to a limited extent in Commonwealth nations. In the United States, two pints are used: a liquid pint (≈ 473 ml) and a less-common dry pint (≈ 551 ml). Each of these pints is one-eighth of its respective gallon, but the gallons differ. This difference dates back to 1824, when the British Weights and Measures Act standardised various liquid measures throughout the British Empire, while the United States continued to use the earlier English measure. The imperial pint consists of 20 imperial fluid ounces and the US liquid pint is 16 US fluid ounces, making the imperial fluid ounce about 4% smaller than the US fluid ounce.

  All of the other former British colonies, such as Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, converted to the metric system in the 1960s and 1970s; so, while the term “pint” may still be in common use in these countries, it may no longer refer to the British imperial pint once used throughout the British Empire. In the United Kingdom, the imperial pint is the primary unit for draught beer and cider, as it is for milk sold in returnable bottles and some cartons. In the UK, legislation mandates that draught beer and cider may be sold by the imperial pint in perpetuity, and in public houses can only be sold in a third of a pint, two-thirds of a pint or multiples of half a pint, which must be served in stamped measured glasses or from government-stamped meters.Since the majority of countries in the world no longer use American or British imperial units, and most are non-English speaking, a “pint of beer” served in a tavern outside the United Kingdom and the United States may be measured by other standards. In Commonwealth countries it may be a British imperial pint of 568 ml, in countries serving large numbers of American tourists it might be a US liquid pint of 473 ml, in many metric counties it is a half-litre of 500 ml, or in some places it is another measure reflecting national and local laws and customs.Historically, units called a pint (or the equivalent in the local language) were used across much of Europe, with values varying between countries from less than half a litre to over one litre. Within continental Europe, these pints were replaced with liquid measures based on the metric system during the 19th century. The term is still in limited use in parts of France, where “une pinte” means an imperial quart, which is 2 imperial pints, whereas a pint is “une chopine”—and Central Europe, notably some areas of Germany and Switzerland, where “ein Schoppen” is colloquially used for roughly half a litre. In Spanish holiday resorts frequented by British tourists, ‘pint’ is often taken to mean a beer glass (especially a dimple mug). Half-pint and pint mugs may therefore be referred to as pinta pequeña (‘small pint’) and pinta grande (‘large pint’).

• Pint (noun)

  a unit of liquid or dry capacity equal to one eighth of a gallon, in Britain equal to 0.568 litre and in the US equal to 0.473 litre (for liquid measure) or 0.551 litre (for dry measure).

• Pint (noun)

  a pint of beer

  “we’ll probably go for a pint on the way home”

• Pint (noun)

  a pint of milk

  “two pints today, please”

• Pint (noun)

  a measure of shellfish, the amount containable in a pint mug.