Definition of "orchestra" []

• Music A large group of musicians who play together on various instruments, usually including strings, woodwinds, brass instruments, and percussion instruments. (noun)
• Music The instruments played by such a group. (noun)
• The area in a theater or concert hall where the musicians sit, immediately in front of and below the stage. (noun)
• The front section of seats nearest the stage in a theater. (noun)
• The entire main floor of a theater. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The whole orchestra and the two - hundred-man-strong chorus would come thundering after me -- the _orchestra on the right key_ and _the chorus following in my footsteps_."
• "Christoph Eschenbach says a conductor's relationship with the orchestra is a bit like a marriage."
• "It's easy to start feeling like being in the orchestra is a job, which it is of course, but it is a gift of a job, and Gustavo reminds you of that."