quartet

noun

quar·​tet kwȯr-ˈtet 

variants or less commonly quartette

1

: a musical composition for four instruments or voices

2

: a group or set of four

especially : the performers of a quartet

Examples of quartet in a Sentence

He is a member of a jazz quartet.

a string quartet by Beethoven

The author wrote a quartet of novels about the same character.

Recent Examples on the Web

Germany boasts world stars like Liverpool’s Florian Wirtz, Arsenal’s Kai Havertz and the Bayern Munich quartet of Jamal Musiala, Aleksandar Pavlovic, Lennart Karl and Manuel Neuer, to name just a few. —Tom Bogert, New York Times, 5 June 2026

Meanwhile, Skeletor sends a quartet of vicious mercenaries (including an ugly Chewbacca clone) after them. —Jeffrey Ressner, HollywoodReporter, 3 June 2026

That quartet has 22 total games of NFL experience, with most of those coming while Westover moonlighted as a fullback last season. —Zack Cox, Boston Herald, 2 June 2026

Rather than focus on fintech, the founding quartet, who knew each other through mutual friends, decided to look at where the puck was going and zeroed in on AI for robots. —Ben Weiss, Fortune, 1 June 2026

Word History

Etymology

Italian quartetto, from quarto fourth, from Latin quartus — more at quart

First Known Use

1773, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing quartet

• barbershop quartet
• string quartet

Rhymes for quartet

• abet
• asset
• baguette
• banquette
• barbette
• beget
• beset
• binet
• briquette
• brunet
• brunette
• burette

Kids Definition

quartet

noun

quar·​tet

variants also quartette

kwȯr-ˈtet 

1

a

: a musical composition for four instruments or voices

b

: the performers of a quartet

2

: a group or set of four