Quire (qr)

US & ImperialTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

25 sheets of machine-made paper (24 for handmade and some specialty papers). One twentieth of a ream.

1 quire = 25 pieces (exactly).

About the quire

Quire comes from the Latin quaternum, by fours, which passed through Old French into Old English. The name made sense in manuscript days, when a quire was usually four sheets folded once, giving eight leaves. Once paper let binders stitch five to seven sheets at a time, the link to four faded.

Today a quire is normally 25 sheets, a twentieth of a 500-sheet ream. Handmade and specialty papers sold in 480-sheet reams still use quires of 24, which was also an older measure in Britain and the United States. Other counts have existed, including 15, 18, and 20, depending on the paper type. The damaged outer quires of a packed ream, called cassie or cording quires, held 20 sheets each. Blank-book binders sometimes use the word for 80 pages.

Sources: Wikipedia: Units of paper quantity

Quire conversion chart

1 quire expressed in every other counting & quantity unit:

More US & Imperial units

• dozen (counting & quantity)
• half dozen (counting & quantity)
• gross (counting & quantity)
• great gross (counting & quantity)
• ream (counting & quantity)
• inch (length)
• foot (length)
• yard (length)
• mile (length)
• thou (length)
• league (length)
• furlong (length)
• chain (length)
• rod (length)
• link (length)
• hand (length)

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