ballerina
Americannoun
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a principal female dancer in a ballet company.
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any female ballet dancer.
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a woman's very low-heeled or heelless shoe or slipper, made to resemble a ballet slipper.
noun
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a female ballet dancer
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the principal female dancer of a ballet company
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ballerina
1785–95; < Italian, feminine of ballerino professional dancer, probably equivalent to baller ( ia ) dance ( ball ( are ) to dance (< Late Latin; see ball 2) + -eria < Old French; see -ery) + -ino -ine 1
Explanation
A girl or woman who dances professionally with a ballet is a ballerina. The lead dancer in "The Nutcracker" is a ballerina. It's more common to call a female dancer a "ballet dancer" than a ballerina these days. Historically, the term ballerina was saved for the very best female solo dancers in a ballet company, similar to the word diva in opera. In French, you call a female dancer a danseuse, and while the word ballerina means "dancing girl" in Italian, it's more accepted to use the word danzatrice in Italy.
Vocabulary lists containing ballerina
List 4
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Twirling in Tutus: Ballet Vocabulary
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for April 20–April 26, 2024
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Monson de Kansky trained with the former Bolshoi Ballet prima ballerina for three years, until her father inquired about her future.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
Upon learning that she was a ballerina, he ordered her to dance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
She appeared as the Mona Lisa and an Edwards Degas ballerina.
From BBC ● May 6, 2026
The story is completely absurd, filled with plot holes and characters as thin as a prima ballerina.
From Salon ● Mar. 29, 2026
As I said those words, a tiny girl with her blond hair in a ballerina topknot walked over to our table.
From "Courage to Soar" by Simone Biles
Arguably most prominent was her role as the central of five ballerinas in “Divertimento No. 15,” Balanchine’s Mozart-inspired confection from 1956, where she displayed gyroscopic turns and air-filled, feathery footwork.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026
Blessedly, these ballerinas didn’t learn their skills in prison or the foster system, and their tutus are not fodder for a satanic pyre.
From Salon ● Mar. 29, 2026
But Giorgos Mavrogordatos, emeritus professor at the University of Athens criticised the evzone display as "extravagant figures resembling ballerinas for the pleasure of tourists".
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2025
Of all the characters, she offers the best understanding of the compulsion ballerinas have to keep dancing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2025
Like alien ballerinas who danced without needing any music.
From "The Thing About Jellyfish" by Ali Benjamin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
