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
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
In very many cases the whole of the nominal value of a share is not called up, i.e., is not re- quired to be immediately paid.
From Everybody's Guide to Money Matters: with a description of the various investments chiefly dealt in on the stock exchange, and the mode of dealing therein by William Cotton
"Your husband was in business?" gently in quired Mrs. Bertram.
From The Honorable Miss A Story of an Old-Fashioned Town by F. Earl Christy
Then quired the morning stars, and at their concordance Stannum was affrighted....
From Melomaniacs by James Huneker
Deep in my heart I hold them all, Their quiring voices cheer my lot; All motionless in one lone spot, Yet God's full heaven in sight and all.
From A Flight in Spring In the car Lucania from New York to the Pacific coast and back, during April and May, 1898 by J. Harris (John Harris) Knowles
I saw the 'potamus take wing Ascending from the damp savannas, And quiring angels round him sing The praise of God, in loud hosannas.
From Poems by T. S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot
And the sound of the quiring Of all these as one, Desired and desiring Till dawn's will be done, Fills full with delight of them heaven till it burns as the heart of the sun.
From Studies in Song by Algernon Charles Swinburne
And all things fair and graceful in the woods I loved with liberal heart; the violets Were dear for her dear eyes, the quiring birds That caught the musical tremble of her voice.
From Poems by John Hay
There's not the meanest orb, which thou behold'st, But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubims; Such harmony is in immortal souls.
From The Plurality of Worlds by Edward Hitchcock
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
