What does "opus" mean?

A work of music or set of works with a specified rank in an ordering of a composer's complete published works.

Opus

Common synonyms include: absolute music, adaptation, air varie, aleatory, aleatory music, arrangement.

//ˈəʊpəs// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Noun

1
A work of music or set of works with a specified rank in an ordering of a composer's complete published works.
"Beethoven's "Razumovsky" Quartets, Op. 59, are considered by many to be the beginning of the Romantic era."
2
a musical work that has been created wordnet
3
A work, especially of art.
"The painter's last opus was a dedication to all things living, in a surprising contrast to all of his prior work."

"This novel is his greatest opus, in my opinion."

Borrowed from Latin opus.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.