quorum

See also: Quorum and quórum

English

WOTD – 25 October 2007

Etymology

From Latin quōrum, genitive plural form of quī (who, which), used as standard wording in written commissions.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkwɔː.ɹəm/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈkwɔːɹəm/
  • Rhymes: -ɔːɹəm
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Hyphenation: quo‧rum

Noun

quorum (plural quorums or quora)

  1. The minimum number of members required for a group to officially conduct business and to cast votes, often but not necessarily a majority or supermajority.
    We can discuss the issue tonight but cannot vote until we have a quorum.
    • 2021 August 19, Dianne Gallagher, “Texas Democrats’ effort to freeze voting bill ends”, in CNN[1]:
      Texas House Democrats’ historic quorum break unexpectedly ended Thursday evening when at least three new Democrats returned to the floor, paving the way for state Republicans to pass restrictive voting legislation.
      The surprise turn of events quickly led to public accusations of betrayal among Democrats, as the House now has the required two-thirds of members necessary for a quorum.
    • 2024 December 7, Zachary B. Wolf, “What will be the signature achievement of Trump 2.0?”, in CNN[2]:
      They may not be using the same sort of hard-charging tactics we saw in the first Trump administration, when they would deny Republicans quorums for votes in committee or those kinds of things, but what we will see is they’re going to ask hard questions and make made-for-TV moments.
  2. A selected body of persons.
  3. (computing, distributed systems) The minimum number of votes that a distributed transaction has to obtain in order to be allowed to perform an operation in a distributed system.

Usage notes

The plural quora is sometimes objected to on the grounds that it is not grammatically correct: in Latin quorum is a plural pronoun, not a singular noun.

Derived terms

Translations

Basque

Etymology

From Latin quōrum.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kwoɾum/ [kwo.ɾũm]
  • Rhymes: -oɾum, -um
  • Hyphenation: quo‧rum

Noun

quorum inan

  1. quorum

Declension

Declension of quorum (inanimate, ending in consonant)
indefinite singular plural
absolutive quorum quoruma quorumak
ergative quorumek quorumak quorumek
dative quorumi quorumari quorumei
genitive quorumen quorumaren quorumen
comitative quorumekin quorumarekin quorumekin
causative quorumengatik quorumarengatik quorumengatik
benefactive quorumentzat quorumarentzat quorumentzat
instrumental quorumez quorumaz quorumez
inessive quorumetan quorumean quorumetan
locative quorumetako quorumeko quorumetako
allative quorumetara quorumera quorumetara
terminative quorumetaraino quorumeraino quorumetaraino
directive quorumetarantz quorumerantz quorumetarantz
destinative quorumetarako quorumerako quorumetarako
ablative quorumetatik quorumetik quorumetatik
partitive quorumik
prolative quorumtzat

Further reading

  • quorum”, in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy] (in Basque), Euskaltzaindia [Royal Academy of the Basque Language]

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin quōrum.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kɔ.ʁɔm/
  • Audio (France (Lyon)):(file)

Noun

quorum m (plural quorums)

  1. quorum

Further reading

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin quōrum, genitive plural form of quī (who, which).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈkwɔ.rum/
  • Rhymes: -ɔrum
  • Hyphenation: quò‧rum

Noun

quorum m (invariable)

  1. quorum (minimum number of members required)

See also

Latin

Pronunciation

Pronoun

quōrum

  1. genitive masculine/neuter plural of quī

Adjective

quōrum

  1. genitive masculine/neuter plural of quī

Pronoun

quōrum

  1. genitive masculine/neuter plural of quis

Descendants

The word has been borrowed to mean the minimum number of members in an organisation required to reach a valid consensus.

  • English: quorum
  • French: quorum m
  • Irish: córam
  • Italian: quorum
  • Polish: kworum
  • Portuguese: quórum m
  • Romanian: cvorum n
  • Russian: кворум m (kvorum)
  • Spanish: cuórum m

Polish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin quōrum.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈkfɔ.rum/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɔrum
  • Syllabification: quo‧rum

Noun

quorum n (indeclinable)

  1. alternative spelling of kworum

Further reading

  • quorum in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • quorum in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin quōrum.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈkwoɾum/ [ˈkwo.ɾũm]
  • Rhymes: -oɾum
  • Syllabification: quo‧rum

Noun

quorum m

  1. alternative form of cuórum

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Further reading