Quite means to a fairly large degree, but not completely. Quite good, quite a lot, quite difficult.
It is the most treacherous word in British English for learners, because with a gradable adjective it weakens — quite good means fairly good — and with an absolute one it strengthens: quite impossible means entirely impossible. In American English quite usually strengthens throughout. Quite on its own, as a reply, means I agree. Note quite a few, meaning a fair number; and not quite, which is a soft no.
1adverbquiteTo a fairly large degree, but not completely.~68%
“The film was quite good, but the book is better.”
2adverbabsoluteCompletely, before an absolute adjective.~32%
“You're quite right; I should have called first.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 22 sentences found in the wild and placed 22 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
quite is a degree word.
The word comes from the same source as quit, from Latin quietus, at rest or discharged. Quite meant completely first, and the weakening in British use is a later development that never reached America.
Anglo-Norman
quite
English, today
quite
From quit. A development of quit, influence by Anglo-Norman quite. a doublet of coy and quit and quiet and quietus. For an analogous semantic development from the same root, compare Armenian շատ.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA