A quotient is the answer you get when you divide one number by another. When you divide 12 by 3, the quotient is 4. When you divide 20 by 5, the quotient is 4. The quotient tells you how many times one number fits into another.

If you have 15 cookies to share equally among 3 friends, you're finding the quotient: 15 ÷ 3 = 5 cookies each.

Mathematicians use the word quotient to be precise about which number they're talking about. In a division problem, you have the dividend (the number being divided), the divisor (the number you're dividing by), and the quotient (the answer). When you divide 28 by 7, the dividend is 28, the divisor is 7, and the quotient is 4.

You might also encounter the word in phrases like “intelligence quotient” (IQ), which is a score calculated from test results using a formula that involves division. The term quotient appears whenever something is being measured as a ratio or comparison between two quantities.