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# quipu

«quipu» in Mova's school dictionary: **A set of knotted coloured strings used by the Inca people…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a quipu, quipus)

### meaning for a pupil

(history) A set of knotted coloured strings used by the Inca people of South America to record numbers and information, such as how many people, animals or goods there were. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/Q/quipu/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

In history and maths lessons about the Incas, the quipu shows that a writing-free civilisation could keep records: the type and position of knots stand for units, tens, hundreds (a base-10 system), and the colours for different things. Officials called quipucamayocs read them. Phrases: «Inca quipu», «knotted strings», «record numbers».

### examples

- The Incas used a quipu to count llamas. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/Q/quipu/#x1)
- Each knot on the quipu stood for a number. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/Q/quipu/#x2)
- A knot near the end of the string showed units; higher up meant tens and hundreds. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/Q/quipu/#x3)
- We made our own quipu from coloured wool. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/Q/quipu/#x4)
- Experts are still trying to work out if quipus recorded words too. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/Q/quipu/#x5)
- The quipu helped officials keep track of taxes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/Q/quipu/#x6)

### note

Also spelled «khipu». Plural «quipus». Pronounced KEE-poo. Maths: the quipu uses place value in base 10, like our numbers, with an empty space for zero. Not an English word in origin — it comes from Quechua, the Inca language.

### In the corpora

- [They had no writing as we know it, but kept records with knotted strings called quipu.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/19-the-aztecs-and-the-inca/5/)
- [The Inca kept records with quipu, strings with knots of different colours and positions, to count people, taxes and goods.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/19-the-aztecs-and-the-inca/16/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «quipu» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/Q/quipu/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.