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orchestra - 5 dictionary results

or⋅ches⋅tra

  [awr-kuh-struh]
Use orchestra in a Sentence
–noun
1. a group of performers on various musical instruments, including esp. stringed instruments of the viol class, clarinets and flutes, cornets and trombones, drums, and cymbals, for playing music, as symphonies, operas, popular music, or other compositions.
2. (in a modern theater)
a. the space reserved for the musicians, usually the front part of the main floor (orchestra pit).
b. the entire main-floor space for spectators.
c. the parquet.
3. (in the ancient Greek theater) the circular space in front of the stage, allotted to the chorus.
4. (in the Roman theater) a similar space reserved for persons of distinction.
Origin:
1590–1600; < L orchēstra < Gk orchstra the space on which the chorus danced, deriv. of orcheîsthai to dance
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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or·ches·tra   (ôr'kĭ-strə, -kěs'trə)   
n.  
  1. Music
    1. A large group of musicians who play together on various instruments, usually including strings, woodwinds, brass instruments, and percussion instruments.
    2. The instruments played by such a group.
    3. The front section of seats nearest the stage in a theater.
    4. The entire main floor of a theater.
  2. The area in a theater or concert hall where the musicians sit, immediately in front of and below the stage.
    1. The front section of seats nearest the stage in a theater.
    2. The entire main floor of a theater.
  4. A semicircular space in front of the stage used by the chorus in ancient Greek theaters.

[Latin orchēstra, the space in front of the stage in Greek theaters where the chorus performed, from Greek orkhēstrā, from orkheisthai, to dance.]
or·ches'tral (ôr-kěs'trəl) adj., or·ches'tral·ly adv.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Orchestra

Or"ches*tra\, n. [L. orchestra, Gr. ?, orig., the place for the chorus of dancers, from ? to dance: cf. F. orchestre.]

1. The space in a theater between the stage and the audience; -- originally appropriated by the Greeks to the chorus and its evolutions, afterward by the Romans to persons of distinction, and by the moderns to a band of instrumental musicians.

2. The place in any public hall appropriated to a band of instrumental musicians.

3. (Mus.) (a) Loosely: A band of instrumental musicians performing in a theater, concert hall, or other place of public amusement. (b) Strictly: A band suitable for the performance of symphonies, overtures, etc., as well as for the accompaniment of operas, oratorios, cantatas, masses, and the like, or of vocal and instrumental solos. (c) A band composed, for the largest part, of players of the various viol instruments, many of each kind, together with a proper complement of wind instruments of wood and brass; -- as distinguished from a military or street band of players on wind instruments, and from an assemblage of solo players for the rendering of concerted pieces, such as septets, octets, and the like.

4. (Mus.) The instruments employed by a full band, collectively; as, an orchestra of forty stringed instruments, with proper complement of wind instruments.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : orchestra
Spanish: orquesta,
German: das Orchester,
Japanese: オーケストラ
More Translations »

orchestra

A group of musicians who play together on a variety of instruments, which usually come from all four instrument families — brass, percussion, strings, and woodwinds. A typical symphony orchestra is made up of more than ninety musicians. Most orchestras, unlike chamber music groups, have more than one musician playing each musical part.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

orchestra 
1606, "area in an ancient theater," from L. orchestra, from Gk. orkhestra, semicircular space where the chorus of dancers performed, with suffix -tra denoting place + orkheisthai "to dance," intens. of erkhesthai "to go, come," from PIE *ergh- "to set in motion, stir up, raise" (cf. Skt. rghayati "trembles, rages, raves," L. oriri "to rise"), from base *er-/*or- (cf. L. origo "a beginning;" Skt. rnoti "rises, moves," arnah "welling stream;" O.Pers. rasatiy "he comes;" Gk. ornynai "to rouse, start;" Goth. rinnan, O.E. irnan "to flow, run"). In ancient Rome, it referred to the place in the theater reserved for senators and other dignitaries. Meaning "group of musicians performing at a concert, opera, etc." first recorded 1720; "part of theater in front of the stage" is from 1768. Orchestrate "to compose or arrange (music) for an orchestra" is an 1880 back-formation of orchestration, which was borrowed 1864 from Fr. The fig. sense of orchestrate is attested from 1883.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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