quorum

IPA: kwˈɔrʌm

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.
A selected body of persons.
(computing, 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.

Examples of "quorum" in Sentences

She apparently didn't know what a quorum is either.
The term quorum shall not apply to such gatherings. "
You did have what we call a quorum, more than half where they are voting.
They've been to what they call a quorum call for some time now, trying to figure it out.
Mr. President, I yield the floor and I make a point of order that a quorum is not present.
This means that the body has to stop what its doing and quickly check if a quorum is present, which for the Senate is a simple majority.
But, if no one objects, then the presence of a quorum is presumed, even though anyone with two eyes can see that not enough people are present.
Since a quorum is 50 Senators or more, that means Senators who want to prevent a vote have to maintain 17 Senators close enough to get to the floor to vote 24/7.
Furthermore, the fact that a quorum is required by the Constitution for business to be conducted implies that a sufficient number of specific members must give specific agreement to specific bills for them to go to the President.
Two things: An ‘old-fashioned’ filibuster requires not only the filibuterer to speak, but at least 49 filibusterees to be in the chamber listening, else the speaker suggests the absence of a quorum, and can take a break while a quorum is assembled.