orchestra
part of speech
noun (an orchestra, orchestras)
meaning for a pupil
1) An orchestra is a large group of musicians who play many instruments together, such as violins, flutes, trumpets and drums. tree →
2) (UK) The orchestra stalls are the seats at the front on the ground floor of a theatre; in the USA "the orchestra" means those seats. tree →
3) The orchestra pit is the low space in front of a stage where the orchestra plays. tree →
sense in the lessons
In music lessons, the orchestra is split into sections: strings, woodwind, brass and percussion, led by a conductor. In maths problems, musicians in an orchestra are grouped and counted. Phrases: school orchestra, symphony orchestra, orchestra pit, play in an orchestra.
examples
- I play the violin in the school orchestra. tree →
- The conductor waved his baton and the orchestra began. tree →
- An orchestra has strings, woodwind, brass and percussion. tree →
- The orchestra has 24 violins and 12 cellos, so 36 string players in those two groups. tree →
- We sat near the orchestra pit. tree →
- The orchestra played music for the film. tree →
note
Pronounced "OR-kes-tra"; the ch sounds like k. Countable. A small group of musicians is a band or an ensemble; an orchestra is large and usually plays classical music.
In the corpora
- Ukraine has won Eurovision three times: in 2004 with Ruslana, in 2016 with Jamala and in 2022 with Kalush Orchestra.
- Orchestras usually seat the quieter strings at the front and the louder brass and percussion at the back, to balance the sound.
- Before a concert the orchestra tunes to one note, usually an A played by the oboe, so everyone plays in tune together.
- Ukraine won Eurovision in 2004 (Ruslana), 2016 (Jamala with «1944») and 2022 (Kalush Orchestra).
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «orchestra» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.