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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

quire.

One-twentieth of a ream of paper; a collection of twenty-four or twenty-five sheets of paper of the same size and quality, unfolded or having a single fold.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈkwaɪ.ə(ɹ)/UK
  1. One-twentieth of a ream of paper; a collection of twenty-four or twenty-five sheets of paper of the same size and quality, unfolded or having a single fold.

  2. A set of leaves which are stitched together, originally a set of four pieces of paper (eight leaves, sixteen pages). This is most often a single signature (i.e. group of four), but may be several nested signatures.

  3. A book, poem, or pamphlet.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English quayer, from Anglo-Norman quaier and Old French quaer, from Latin quaternus (“fourfold”), from quater (“four times”). Doublet of cahier.

verb/ˈkwaɪ.ə(ɹ)/UK
  1. To prepare quires by stitching together leaves of paper.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English quayer, from Anglo-Norman quaier and Old French quaer, from Latin quaternus (“fourfold”), from quater (“four times”). Doublet of cahier.

verb/ˈkwaɪ.ə(ɹ)/UK
  1. Poetic spelling of choir (“to sing in concert”).

Where this word comes from

From Middle English quer, quere, from Old French quer, from Latin chorus, from Ancient Greek χορός (khorós, “company of dancers or singers”). Doublet of choir, chorus, and hora.

noun/ˈkwaɪ.ə(ɹ)/UK
  1. Uncommon form of choir (“one quarter of a cruciform church, or the architectural area of a church used by the choir, often near the apse”).

    form-of · uncommon
  2. Archaic spelling of choir (“group of people who sing together”).

    alt-of · archaic
Where this word comes from

From Middle English quer, quere, from Old French quer, from Latin chorus, from Ancient Greek χορός (khorós, “company of dancers or singers”). Doublet of choir, chorus, and hora.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.