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
Some of the questions are multiple-choice, while others re quire several sentences to answer.
From "Legend" by Marie Lu
The unwrapping of the old young body, a most delicate operation, re- quired seven days.
From Time Magazine Archive
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
Then quired the morning stars, and at their concordance Stannum was affrighted....
From Melomaniacs by James Huneker
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
So to the sacred Sun in Memnon's fane Spontaneous concords quired the matin strain.
From The Botanic Garden A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of Vegetation by Erasmus Darwin
The elfins had come back, and were quiring like the immortals.
From What Dreams May Come by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
One of God's messengers has at last struck the missing chord and awakened a flood of divine melody more acceptable to the quiring hosts than the lays of measured song.
From Marguerite Verne by Rebecca Agatha Armour
The light was now only on the hilltops; the birds were silent; only the frogs in the lush meadows kept up their quiring, a sound quaintly mournful, weirdly charming.
From The Long Roll by Mary Johnston
Heavenly fingers were sweeping the keys, heavenly voices were quiring the melody they had with wanton hand flung into a mortal's brain.
From What Dreams May Come by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
There's not the smallest orb that thou behold'st But in this motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim; Such harmony is in immortal souls!
From Bulfinch's Mythology: the Age of Fable by Thomas Bulfinch
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.
