quorums

Noun

quorum (plural quorums or quora)

1. (historical) A select body of (usually eminent) justices of the peace, every member of which had to be present to constitute a deciding body; a member of this body. Later more generally: all justices collectively.
2. The minimum number of members required for a group to officially conduct business and to cast votes, often but not necessarily a majority or supermajority.
   • We can discuss the issue tonight but cannot vote until we have a quorum.
3. (archaic) Distinguished or essential members of any body; a select company.
4. (distributed systems) The minimum number of votes that a distributed transaction has to obtain in order to be allowed to perform an operation in a distributed system.