Woods wrote:What’s the difference between a choir and a chorus? I thought using “chorus” with this meaning was a mistake made by people with bad English… but I just checked the Cambridge Advance Learner’s and it’s got basically the same definition as “choir.”
Then I also checked Merriam-Webster online:
choir: an organized company of singers (as in a church service)
chorus: an organized company of singers who sing in concert : choir; especially : a body of singers who sing the choral parts of a work (as in opera) ; a group of dancers and singers supporting the featured players in a musical comedy or revue
Is it more like if we’re talking about a radio choir or one that is participating in a classical music performance, we should rather use chorus instead?
A choir refers to a group of singers and no dancers or musicians, while a chorus may include dancers and even actors.
Choir and chorus share some meanings but are not interchangeable. For eg., a chorus can refer to the refrain of a song, but the choir can’t.
You can call it a choir or a chorus if you listen to a group of singers. But if there is some repeated section of a song, then it is known as chorus and not the choir.
Both words can refer to groups of people or the same kind of animals. A choir only compromises just vocalists and not any other performances.
If you want to keep the terms in mind without getting confused, then remember the letter ‘S’ as it comes in both the chorus and the song. The chorus and song both are spelled with the letter S. It is easy to remember that the chorus can refer to a part of the song.