Quarter - Definition and Overview

A quarter is:

• One of four equal parts of a single thing (sometimes referred to as a fourth in US English).
• A 1/4 (¼) part of many other things, including the year, the cycle of the moon, or a city (i.e. the French Quarter of New Orleans). A quarter is also an academic period like a semester, but shorter (approximately 10 weeks instead of 15).
• The name for coins which are worth one-fourth (1/4) of a dollar. Such coins exist in the United States and Canada. See quarter (U.S. coin) and quarter (Canadian coin).
• The name for several units of measurement, each of which is one-fourth of some larger unit. In the Imperial system, a quarter is two stone (28 pounds), or one-quarter of a hundredweight.
• Requesting a pardon, specifically not killing a defeated opponent.
• in heraldry, unless specified as a quarter sinister or sinister quarter, an ordinary occupying the dexter chief (viewer's upper left) quarter of the "field" of a shield, or, if the field is "quarterly" (divided into four by cross-like lines), one of the quarters thus formed
• as a verb, to quarter means to divide in to quarters, such as when slaughtering an animal for food

To print a one-quarter ¼ symbol in HTML, ¼ can be used. Likewise, a three-quarters ¾ symbol is ¾.