# choir

Pronunciation: US say "KWY-ur" /kwaɪɚ/; UK say "KWY-uh" /kwaɪə(ɹ)/

## Noun

1. A group of people who sing together, especially one trained to perform as a unit.
   - Simple: A group of people who sing songs together, like at a church or school.
   - _The cathedral choir rehearses every Thursday evening._
   - _Several community choirs competed at the regional festival._
2. One of the nine ranks or orders into which angels are traditionally divided. *(dialectal, Christian)*
   - Simple: One of the nine groups of angels in Christian teaching.
   - _Medieval theologians placed the seraphim in the highest choir._
   - _The fresco depicts all nine choirs of angels arranged in concentric circles._
3. A set of strings on a harpsichord that includes one string for each note.
   - Simple: A full set of strings on a harpsichord, with one string for each note.
   - _The player engaged a second choir for a fuller sound in the final movement._
   - _Larger harpsichords often carry three choirs of strings._

## Verb

4. To sing in concert; to join one's voice with others in unified song.
   - Simple: To sing together as a group, with all the voices joining at once.
   - _Carolers choired through the snowy streets on Christmas Eve._
   - _At dawn the monks choir in the abbey church, their voices rising as one._

## Origin

The word comes from Middle English quer or quere, from Old French quer, from Latin chorus, which itself came from Ancient Greek khorós, meaning a company of dancers or singers. Its modern spelling was influenced by chorus and by the French chœur, and it is a doublet of quire, chorus, and hora.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/choir (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).