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Showing results for quire. Search instead for quired.
Synonyms

quire

1 American  
[kwahyuhr] / kwaɪər /

noun

  1. a set of 24 uniform sheets of paper.

  2. Bookbinding. a section of printed leaves in proper sequence after folding; gathering.

quire 2 American  
[kwahyuhr] / kwaɪər /

noun

quired, quiring

  1. Archaic. an archaic spelling of choir.

quire 1 British  
/ kwaɪə /

noun

  1. a set of 24 or 25 sheets of paper; a twentieth of a ream

    1. four sheets of paper folded once to form a section of 16 pages

    2. a section or gathering

  3. a set of all the sheets in a book

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
quire 2 British  
/ kwaɪə /

noun

  1. an obsolete spelling of choir

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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."

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Vocabulary lists containing quire

Scrabble: Words that Begin with Q

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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.

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

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.