Definitions

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

  • noun Music A combination of three or more pitches sounded simultaneously.
  • noun Harmony, as of color.
  • intransitive verb Music To play chords.
  • intransitive verb To play chords on.
  • intransitive verb To produce by playing musical chords; harmonize.
  • noun A line segment that joins two points on a curve.
  • noun A straight line connecting the leading and trailing edges of an airfoil.
  • noun An emotional feeling or response.
  • noun Archaic The string of a musical instrument.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A string; a cord. Specifically —
  • noun The string of a musical instrument.
  • noun A musical tone.—
  • noun In music, the simultaneous sounding of three or more tones; specifically, the sounding of three or more tones that are concordant with one another.
  • noun Hence Harmony, as of color.
  • noun In geometry, a straight line intersecting a curve; that part of a straight line which is comprised between two of its intersections with a curve; specifically, the straight line joining the extremities of an arc of a circle.
  • noun A main horizontal member of a bridge-truss.
  • noun In anatomy, a cord; a chorda; especially, the notochord, or chorda dorsalis. See chorda.
  • To furnish with chords or strings, as a musical instrument.
  • In music, to sound harmoniously or concordantly.

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

  • intransitive verb (Mus.) To accord; to harmonize together.
  • transitive verb To provide with musical chords or strings; to string; to tune.
  • noun The string of a musical instrument.
  • noun (Mus.) A combination of tones simultaneously performed, producing more or less perfect harmony, .
  • noun (Geom.) A right line uniting the extremities of the arc of a circle or curve.
  • noun (Anat.) A cord. See Cord, n., 4.
  • noun (Engin.) The upper or lower part of a truss, usually horizontal, resisting compression or tension.
  • noun See under Accidental, Common, and Vocal.
  • noun See Illust. of Arch.
  • noun a chord drawn from any point of a curve, in the circle of curvature for that point.
  • noun See Scale.

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

  • noun music In music, a combination of any three or more notes sounded simultaneously.
  • noun geometry A straight line between two points of a curve.
  • noun engineering A horizontal member of a truss.
  • noun aeronautics The distance between the leading and trailing edge of a wing, measured in the direction of the normal airflow.
  • noun computing A keyboard shortcut that involves two or more distinct keypresses, such as Ctrl+M followed by P.
  • verb transitive To write chords for.
  • verb music To accord; to harmonize together.

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

  • verb play chords on (a string instrument)
  • noun a combination of three or more notes that blend harmoniously when sounded together
  • verb bring into consonance, harmony, or accord while making music or singing
  • noun a straight line connecting two points on a curve

Etymologies

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

[Alteration of cord.]

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

[Alteration (influenced by chord, musical instrument string) of Middle English cord, from accord, agreement, from Old French acorde, from acorder, to agree; see accord.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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

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Examples

Comments

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  • "Aëronautics: the straight line subtending the arc of an aërocurve; hence the dimension of any aërofoil between the leading edge and the trailing edge. Cf. SPAN."

    December 14, 2006

  • I added this thinking of circles. What were you thinking of?

    September 8, 2008

  • I was thinking of a lamington. But I was goofing off.

    September 8, 2008