Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The minimal number of officers and members of a committee or organization, usually a majority, who must be present for valid transaction of business.
  • noun A select group.
  • noun The minimal density of bacterial cells that results in altered gene expression in a population of bacteria.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In England, those justices of the peace whose presence is necessary to constitute a bench.
  • noun The number of members of any constituted body of persons whose presence at or participation in a meeting is required to render its proceedings valid, or to enable it to transact business legally.
  • noun Requisite materials.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Such a number of the officers or members of any body as is competent by law or constitution to transact business

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun 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.
  • noun A selected body of persons.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a gathering of the minimal number of members of an organization to conduct business

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, quorum of justices of the peace, from Latin quōrum, of whom (from the wording of a commission naming certain persons as members of a body), genitive pl. of quī, who; see kwo- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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

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