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.

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

• disappearing quorum
• inquorate
• quorate
• quorum-busting
• quorum sensing

Translations

minimum number present for official business

• Arabic: نِصَاب (niṣāb)
• Armenian: քվորում (hy) (kʻvorum)
• Azerbaijani: yetərsay sg
• Bulgarian: кворум (bg) m (kvorum)
• Catalan: quòrum (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 法定人數 / 法定人数 (zh) (fǎdìng rénshù)

• Dutch: quorum (nl)
• Esperanto: kvorumo
• Finnish: päätösvaltaisuus (fi) (päätösvaltainen as an adjective is more common)
• French: quorum (fr) m
• Georgian: კვორუმი (ḳvorumi)
• German: Quorum (de) n
• Greek: απαρτία (el) f (apartía)
• Hebrew: מִנְיָן (he) m (minyán)
• Hungarian: határozatképesség (hu) (more commonly expressed with the adjective határozatképes)
• Indonesian: kuorum (id)
• Irish: córam m
• Japanese: 定数 (ja) (ていすう, teisū), 定足数 (ja) (ていそくすう, teisokusū)
• Malay: korum, cukupbilang
• Persian: حد نصاب (hadd-e nesâb)
• Polish: kworum (pl) n, quorum (pl) n
• Portuguese: quórum (pt) m
• Romanian: cvorum (ro) n
• Russian: кво́рум (ru) m (kvórum)
• Spanish: cuórum (es) m
• Swedish: beslutsmässighet (sv) c, kvorum (sv)
• Tagalog: kasapatan
• Thai: องค์ประชุม (ong-bprà-chum), องค์คณะ (ong-ká-ná)
• Turkish: nisap (tr), yeter sayı (tr)
• Yiddish: קוואָרום m (kvorum)

Basque

Etymology

From Latin quōrum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwoɾum/ [kwo.ɾũm]
• Rhymes: -oɾum, -um

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:

  (file)

Noun

quorum m (plural quorums)

1. quorum

Further reading

• “quorum”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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

• referendum

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkʷoː.rum/, [ˈkʷoːrʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkwo.rum/, [ˈkwɔːrum]

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