- a variation of choir.
quire
1 Americannoun
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a set of 24 uniform sheets of paper.
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Bookbinding. a section of printed leaves in proper sequence after folding; gathering.
noun
noun
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a set of 24 or 25 sheets of paper; a twentieth of a ream
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four sheets of paper folded once to form a section of 16 pages
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a section or gathering
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a set of all the sheets in a book
noun
Etymology
Origin of quire
1175–1225; Middle English quayer < Middle French quaier < Vulgar Latin *quaternum set of four sheets, derivative of Latin quarternī four each
Explanation
Like a ream or a bale, a quire is a quantity of paper. There are 25 sheets of paper in a quire, plenty for you to write that short story. A quire is one-twentieth of a ream, which today means 25 pieces of paper per quire. Originally, each quire contained 24 sheets, a measurement that's still occasionally used for handmade paper. During the Middle Ages, a quire was a little book or pamphlet made from four folded sheets of parchment. The name stems from the medieval Latin quaternum, "set of four sheets of parchment," and the root quater, "four times."
Vocabulary lists containing quire
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A virtual tour of the area available on the website for St George's Chapel shows it still hanging near the door leading into the quire.
From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2025
Standing in the quire of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, he remembered his mother and offered his people comfort after a year of loss and upheaval.
From New York Times ● Dec. 25, 2022
The queen will be buried at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, which is next to the quire of the main St George's Chapel.
From Reuters ● Sep. 19, 2022
But the Bengals are quire charitable to opposing QBs, being picked apart at a 121.0 rating that is better than only Kansas City’s 121.4.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 19, 2021
I have removed the final pages of this book as a quire, and it is my purpose to use them to demonstrate the arts of literacy.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
To duplicate the U.N. talks by per sonal visits to all the capitals of the statesmen he was seeing would have re quired a three-month, globe-girdling tour.
From Time Magazine Archive
The unwrapping of the old young body, a most delicate operation, re- quired seven days.
From Time Magazine Archive
My throat of war be turned, Which quired with my drum into a pipe!
From The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded by Delia Bacon
As of this date, Alytech still has over 10,000 computers sitting idly waiting for the much delayed shipments of hard disks re- quired to repair the machines.
From Terminal Compromise: computer terrorism: when privacy and freedom are the victims: a novel by Winn Schwartau
What seemed like common sense to him was a legal spider web that Higgins was re- quired to think through.
From Terminal Compromise: computer terrorism: when privacy and freedom are the victims: a novel by Winn Schwartau
His philosophy is of the beautiful, as was Keats', and while he lingers by the river's edge to catch the song of the reeds, his gaze is oftener fixed on the quiring planets.
From Chopin : the Man and His Music by James Huneker
He had just picked up a rail to lay it on the fire in better shape, when he heard a weak voice in quiring: "Does anybody know where the 200th Ind. is?"
From Si Klegg, Book 2 (of 6) Thru The Stone River Campaign And In Winter Quarters At Murfreesboro by John McElroy
The windows, with their fleeting, flickering fires, The height and spread of frontage shining sheer, The quiring signs, the rejoicing roofs and spires - 'Tis El Dorado—El Dorado plain, The Golden City!
From Poems by William Ernest Henley
Have not the quiring tempests rung The dirges of the dead?
From The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume V. The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century by Charles Rogers
For evermore thou hear’st immortal Pan And those melodious godheads, ever young And ever quiring, on the mountains old.
From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 14 (of 25) by Robert Louis Stevenson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
