Word Direct Answers

What does "chord" mean?

Chord: (Mus.) A combination of tones simultaneously performed, producing more or less perfect harmony, as, the common chord.

Additional senses

  1. 2.(Geom.) A right line uniting the extremities of the arc of a circle or curve.
  2. 3.(Anat.) A cord. See Cord, n., 4.
  3. 4.(Engin.) The upper or lower part of a truss, usually horizontal, resisting compression or tension. Waddell. Accidental, Common, and Vocal chords. See under Accidental, Common, and Vocal. -- Chord of an arch. See Illust. of Arch. -- Chord of curvature, a chord drawn from any point of a curve, in the circle of curvature for that point. -- Scale of chords. See Scale.
  4. 5.To provide with musical chords or strings; to string; to tune. When Jubal struck the chorded shell. Dryden. Even the solitary old pine tree chords his harp. Beecher.
  5. 6.To accord; to harmonize together; as, this note chords with that.

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