1A part of a song which is repeated after each verse.

1. 1.1 A piece of choral music, especially one forming part of a larger work such as an opera.
   a selection of choruses from the ‘Messiah’

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Further out, up to her waist, an elderly matron in a voluminous one-piece holds a walkman in upraised arms and belts out the chorus to an opera.
   • In their tenderness and intimacy, their heartfelt experience of Jesus' final hours, and their prayerful, awestruck participation in the mercy poured out in him, the chorales and choruses became prayer.
   • The music is based on incidental choruses Bernstein composed for an adaptation of the Jean Anouilh play, The Lark, about the trial of Joan of Arc.
   • ‘Der Erste Psalm’ is a joyous and intrinsically motivated work with some memorable string writing and big bold choruses that are surely written to stick in the memory!
   • There are some great arias, fine ensemble pieces, and choruses whose effect is visceral.
   • These words had already been heard in many an opera (notably in a beautiful chorus from Rameau's Pygmalion).
   • Although also without recitative, there were arioso pieces and instrumental symphonies, with choruses which included chorales.
   • And when the patron informed me that yes, he did have a room for tonight, the chorus from Handel's Messiah erupted in my head.
   • The music is superb, noble and inspiring, especially the choruses which form the backbone of the work.
   • The Leonin pieces alternate ensemble choruses of chant with organum passages which feature a solo voice floating melodic lines over the drone.
   • The big choruses in The Creation are utterly magnificent, but so much else is so brilliantly executed it's hard to single out highlights.
   • Three of the Latin choruses are directly followed by Lutheran chorales (their tunes taken from the St Matthew and St John Passions).
   • Also, the music is more sectional, with clearly defined arias, ensemble pieces, and choruses.
   • Short choruses were an important element in the masque and Restoration stage works, and it was on this tradition that Handel built his new genre, the English oratorio.
2. 1.2 A simple song for group singing in informal Christian worship.
   a typical service includes several hymns and choruses sung by all

   Example sentencesExamples

   • It is also our intention to include a section at the back of the book consisting of songs and choruses.
   • The twentieth century has seen a revolution in Christian music, with the rise almost to ubiquity of new kinds of worship song and chorus.
   • Worship is a mix of the good old traditional hymns and the more modern choruses led by the music group.
   • He photocopied the conference selected Hymns given to him and taught his congregation to sing hymns and not choruses.
   • Worship is a mix of 'good-old' hymns and the more modern choruses led by the music group, suitable for all ages.
   • The chorus 'I love to worship you' was composed by Paul Cowderoy and performed by the worship team of the Centre.
   • For them, pop praise choruses and a chatty atmosphere have become normal.
   • She wrote choruses that were sung in her church.
   • Classes began with a 'circle-up' time where everyone often held hands standing in a big circle, sang a simple worship chorus, shared prayer requests, and prayed.
   • When they return to the front of the church, they sing this chorus.
   • The challenge that new, emerging forms of church present for the mainline is not as simple as how we might integrate praise choruses into the 11:00 A.M. service.
   • We went from these rich hymns to Gospel songs with even less Bible, and then on to choruses which have even less Bible.
   • Some use musical instruments while others do not; some sing only Psalms while others use hymns and choruses.
   • Would he prefer high-church liturgy or low-church choruses?
   • They are the ones who find it difficult to stand through chorus after chorus.

2A large organized group of singers, especially one which performs with an orchestra or opera company.

1. 2.1 A group of singers or dancers performing together in a supporting role in a musical or opera.
   the orchestra lacked polish and the chorus were inclined to rush ahead regardless

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Hollywood today mourned the death of actress Joan Crawford, the chorus dancer who became a glamour queen.
   • They made 42nd Street - the story of a girl plucked from the chorus to the lead role in a Broadway musical - more than just a fluffy fairy tale.
   • Simon is now several years and several pantos down the road from his 1984 debut as a chorus dancer.
   • They were hatcheck and cigarette girls, dancers in chorus lines, singers with small bands and combos, and glamorous frequenters of night spots.
   • Some of the dancers in the chorus do have the appropriate raunchiness, and all are technically up to the task.
   • With delightful support from a gorgeous cast of Munchkins, dancers and chorus, this Yellow Brick Road is well worth a journey.
   • With an excellent chorus, good female support and two dazzling male leads I cannot fault this show.
   • The amateur dramatic society are desperately seeking men for the chorus of its April musical Anything Goes.
   • Bright, colourful and entertaining with an excellent cast, chorus and dancers and the Sunbeams are, as always delightful and almost steal the show.
   • Those on stage were excellent, from Carney and Brennan in the lead roles, to the chorus line of servants in the upper-crust Lord household.
   • A native of the town is bringing together special guests, choruses and dancers to perform all the big hits from the West End musicals.
   • When both the chorus and the dancers are on the steps they cannot be told apart.
   • Now, with special guests, chorus and dancers, he is once again taking centre stage in his own professional show which features many of the classics from the West End musicals.
   • It was a truly great performance from the former student who once filled the ranks of the chorus in a musical put on in the local school.
   • She was unique in her day because most female dancers danced in the chorus and there were very few female solo performers.
   • Then the kids all have to vote on whether a girl who hits a boy who talks trash to her can still be in the chorus of the spring musical.
   • The most masterfully executed, Reflex Action also has the largest cast and includes, among other things, a musical number and a chorus line.
   • Large choruses of dancers, their individuality consumed in replicas of the sculptured, stylized masks, cut swathes of movement patterns across the levels and widths of the stage.
   • Marty puts her on stage, all right - as a chorus dancer.
   • All the dancers in a chorus take up the last line.

   Synonyms

   chorus line, dance troupe

   dancing girls

3A simultaneous utterance of something by many people.

4(in ancient Greek tragedy) a group of performers who comment together on the main action.

1. 4.1 A single character who speaks the prologue and other linking parts of the play, especially in Elizabethan drama.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • The play begins with a sonnet spoken by the chorus and in its poetry, language, and plot reflects the sonnet craze of the 1590s, from which period Shakespeare's own sequence dates.
   • He is also accustomed to introduce a character as a sort of chorus, to detail the progress of events to his audience.
   • Four individual characters and a chorus add flesh and blood to Sircar's play.
2. 4.2 A section of text spoken by the chorus in drama.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • The film version is slightly expurgated (eliminating the play's chorus), but otherwise faithfully maintains Marlowe's poetry.
   • So rhetorical techniques, such as choruses and verses and meter have always been very important.
   • The play's second chorus, with its explicit denunciation of ‘rash’ and ‘heady’ conclusion, resonates significantly beyond the specific circumstance of ‘this tale of Herod's end’.
   • I've been thinking of doing a play, mostly in prose with verse choruses, and have got bits of the story mapped out.

5A device used with an amplified musical instrument to give the impression that more than one instrument is being played.

(of a group of people) say the same thing at the same time.