Chorus

/ˈkɔːɹəs/ · noun

Meaning

A group of singers and dancers in a theatrical performance or religious festival who commented on the main performance in speech or song..

Definitions by Sense

1. A group of singers and dancers in a theatrical performance or religious festival who commented on the main performance in speech or song.
2. A song performed by the singers of such a group.
3. (by extension, chiefly British, theater, historical) An actor who reads the prologue and epilogue of a play, and sometimes also acts as a commentator or narrator; also, a portion of a play read by this actor.
4. A group of singers performing together; a choir; specifically, such a group singing together in a musical, an opera, etc., as distinct from the soloists; an ensemble.
5. (by extension) A group of people in a performance who recite together.
6. An instance of singing by a group of people.
7. A group of people, animals, or inanimate objects who make sounds together.
8. The noise or sound made by such a group.

Example Sentences

[W]ee would that the voice and dialect of the propheteſſe Pythia, reſembling the ſpeech of a Chorus in a tragedie from a ſcaffold, ſhould pronounce her anſwers not in ſimple, plaine, and triviall termes, without any grace to ſet them out, but with Poeticall magnificence of high and ſtately verſes, diſguiſed as it were with metaphors and figurative phraſes, yea, and that which more is, with ſound of flute and hautboies: […]

And the Apocalyps of Saint Iohn is the majeſtick image of a high and ſtately Tragedy, ſhutting up and intermingling her ſolemn Scenes and Acts with a ſevenfold Chorus of halleluja's and harping ſymphonies: […]

Enter Chorus. / Cut is the branch that might haue growne ful ſtraight, / And burned is Apolloes Laurel bough, / That ſometime grew within this learned man: […]

Ya're as good as a Chorus my lord.

Palinode. / Amo[rphus]. From ſpaniſh ſhrugs, french faces, ſmirks, irps, and all affected humours: / Chorvs. Good Mercvry defend vs.

Enter Time, the Chorus. [stage direction]

The performance of the chorus was awe-inspiring and exhilarating.

They are shadowed by a robed chorus of Beckettian sages--Homer (Joseph Grimm), Hesiod (Gary Kelley), Herodotos (Daniel Parker) and Thucydides (Michael Rivkin)--given to Joseph Campbell-like pronouncements on the power of myth.

Synonyms for chorus

Antonyms for chorus

Related Words

Word Forms

• choruses
• chorusses
• chori
• chorusing
• chorussing
• chorused
• chorussed

Usage Notes

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