ballerina

[bal-uh-ree-nuh]

noun

1. a principal female dancer in a ballet company.

2. any female ballet dancer.

3. a woman's very low-heeled or heelless shoe or slipper, made to resemble a ballet slipper.

ballerina

/ ˌbæləˈriːnə /

noun

1. a female ballet dancer

2. the principal female dancer of a ballet company

ballerina

1. In ballet, a female dancer. (See prima ballerina.)

Word History and Origins

Origin of ballerina¹

1785–95; < Italian, feminine of ballerino professional dancer, probably equivalent to baller ( ia ) dance ( ball ( are ) to dance (< Late Latin; ball ² ) + -eria < Old French; -ery ) + -ino -ine ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of ballerina¹

C18: from Italian, feminine of ballerino dancing master, from ballare to dance, from Late Latin ballāre : see _ball ²

Example Sentences

Any joy she had once taken in dancing had left her, as had her grandiose dreams of being, at twelve years old, the youngest prima ballerina in the history of ballet.

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“Miss Lumley, do I look like a Russian ballerina to you? I am in no mood for leaping.”

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He had an 80-yard touchdown last weekend, and the way he stayed in bounds along the sideline, it looked like he was a ballerina.

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Along her way, the ballerina’s mate supports her in some dynamic and contrasting displays of delicately dramatic force.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The writer Jia Tolentino characterized it as “what a ballerina might do if you concussed her and then made her snort caffeine pills.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal