Choral

How to spell choral

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce choral

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does choral mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to, written for, or sung by a choir or chorus of voices.

Choral in a sentence

• The cathedral is famous for its choral music sung every Sunday.

• She joined the local choral society to sing in the winter concert.

Where does choral come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the ancient Greek khoros, which named a group of singers and dancers who performed together in religious festivals and in the theatre. The Greek term passed into Latin as chorus, keeping the sense of an organised body of singers, and from chorus medieval Latin formed the adjective choralis, meaning 'belonging to a choir'. English adopted choral in the early 1600s, by way of French and Latin, to describe music written for or sung by a group of voices. The kept 'ch' spelling, pronounced like a hard 'k', is a direct fingerprint of the Greek origin, since Greek khi was regularly rendered 'ch' in Latin and English. That same root still echoes in 'chorus', 'chorale', and 'choir', which explains why choral is so easily muddled in writing with the unrelated 'coral' of the sea and 'corral' the livestock pen.

How the word is built

• chor- (from Greek khoros: a band of singers and dancers)
• -al (adjective-forming suffix)

Words that sound like choral

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• coral: A hard structure built up over time by colonies of tiny marine animals, often forming reefs in warm seas.