Choir

How to spell choir

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce choir

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does choir mean?

1. nounAn organised group of singers who perform together, especially in a church or concert setting.
2. nounThe part of a church near the altar where the singers and clergy are seated.

Choir in a sentence

• The school choir rehearsed every Thursday evening in the main hall.

• Restoration work on the choir exposed centuries of original stonework.

• She joined the local choir after years of singing only in the shower.

• Carved wooden stalls line both sides of the medieval choir.

Where does choir come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek khoros, which named a band of dancers and singers who performed together in ancient drama. The Greek word passed into Latin as chorus, meaning a company of singers, and from there into Old French as quer or cuer. Middle English borrowed it in the 1200s and spelled it phonetically as quire or quere, which matched its sound rather well. In the 1600s scholars deliberately respelled it as choir to echo the Latin chorus and the French choeur, and that learned tinkering is exactly why the modern spelling looks nothing like its sound. The everyday word chorus, kept far closer to the Latin, is its direct cousin and a useful reminder of where the stubborn ch- and -oir come from.

How the word is built

• choir (from Greek khoros: a band of dancers and singers)