chord

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Latin chorda (“cord”), from Ancient Greek (Doric) χορδά (khorda), (Ionic) χορδή (khordē, “string of gut, the string of a lyre”)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /kɔː(ɹ)d/, X-SAMPA: /kO:(r\)d/
• (US) IPA: /kɔɹd/, X-SAMPA: /kOr\d/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: cord

Noun

chord (plural chords)

1. ​(music) In music, a combination of any three or more notes sounded simultaneously.
   • 1956, Delano Ames, chapter 14, Crime out of Mind^[1]:

     He struck the opening chords of the passage; but this time Irene's voice was silent. Victor stopped in the middle of an arpeggio.

2. (geometry) A straight line between two points of a curve.
3. (engineering) A horizontal member of a truss.
4. (aeronautics) The distance between the leading and trailing edge of a wing, measured in the direction of the normal airflow.
5. (computing) A keyboard shortcut that involves two or more distinct keypresses, such as Ctrl+M followed by P.
   • 2005, James Avery, Visual Studio hacks (page 99)

     Ctrl-K is the default first key for chords, but you can create chords using any keys that you want.

6. The string of a musical instrument.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

7. (anatomy) A cord.

Derived terms

• mixed-interval chord
• strike a chord, touch a chord

Translations

combination of three or more notes

• Albanian: akord (sq)
• Arabic: وتر (ar) (wátar) m, ائتلاف نغمات (ar) (i'tilaaf naghamaat) m
• Azeri: bağ (az)
• Bulgarian: акорд (bg) (akord) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 和音 (cmn) (héyīn), 弦 (cmn) (xián)

• Czech: akord (cs) m
• Danish: akkord (da)
• Dutch: akkoord (nl) n
• Esperanto: kordo (eo)
• Estonian: akord (et)
• Finnish: sointu (fi)
• French: accord (fr)
• Galician: acorde (gl)
• German: Akkord (de)
• Greek: συγχορδία (el) (synchordía) f, ακόρντο (el) (akórnto) n
• Hebrew: אקורד (he) (aqord) m
• Hungarian: akkord (hu)
• Indonesian: kor (id)
• Irish: corda (ga)

• Italian: accordo (it)
• Japanese: 和音 (ja) (わおん, waon)
• Korean: 화음 (ko) (hwa-eum) (和音 (ko))
• Latvian: stīga (lv)
• Lithuanian: balso stygos (lt)
• Norwegian: akkord (no), note (no), noter (no)
• Persian: وتر (fa)
• Polish: akord (pl)
• Portuguese: acorde (pt)
• Romanian: acord (ro)
• Russian: аккорд (ru) (akkórd) m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: акорд (sh)

  Roman: akord (sh)

• Slovak: akord (sk)
• Slovene: akord (sl) m
• Spanish: acorde (es)
• Swedish: ackord (sv)
• Thai: คอร์ด (th) (khòt)
• Turkish: akor (tr)
• Uyghur: akkord (ug) (akkord)
• Vietnamese: dây (vi)
• Welsh: cord (cy)
• Yiddish: אַקאָרד (yi) (akord) m

straight line

• Bengali: জ্যা (bn)
• Bulgarian: хорда (bg) (chorda) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 直線 (cmn), 直线 (cmn) (zhíxiàn)

• Czech: tětiva (cs) f
• Dutch: koorde (nl) f
• Finnish: jänne (fi)

• French: corde (fr) f
• Greek: χορδή (el) (chordí) f
• Japanese: 直線 (ja) (ちょくせん, chokusen)
• Portuguese: corda (pt) f
• Romanian: coardă (ro) f
• Russian: хорда (ru) (xórda) f
• Spanish: cuerda (es) f

horizontal member of a truss

• Finnish: jänne (fi)

• Greek: χορδή (el) (chordí) f

distance of a wing's leading and trailing edges

• Finnish: jänne (fi)
• Greek: χορδή (el) (chordí) f

• Russian: хорда (ru) (xórda) f

See also

• simultaneity

Verb

chord (third-person singular simple present chords, present participle chording, simple past and past participle chorded)

1. (transitive) To write chords for.
   • 2003, Dan Levenson, Clawhammer Banjo from Scratch

     This chording technique works well for learning any tune, but this is the only tune of the set that I will write out completely as a chorded version.

2. (music) To accord; to harmonize together.

   This note chords with that one.

3. (transitive) To provide with musical chords or strings; to string; to tune.
   • Dryden

     When Jubal struck the chorded shell.

   • Beecher

     Even the solitary old pine tree chords his harp.

Translations

to write chords for

• Finnish: soinnuttaa (fi)