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
Etymology
Origin of ballerina
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
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.
The story is completely absurd, filled with plot holes and characters as thin as a prima ballerina.
From Salon • Mar. 29, 2026
It’s been 15 years since a performer won for a horror role: Natalie Portman as a ballerina losing her grip on reality in “Black Swan.”
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 11, 2026
Thousands of people waiting in a rainy Piazza del Duomo cheered as torchbearer Nicoletta Manni, an Italian ballerina, carried it into the square, over an hour behind schedule.
From Barron's • Feb. 5, 2026
It’s not Jackie Burkhart on That ’70s Show, the breakout role she landed when she was 14, or the ballerina Lily in the critically acclaimed thriller Black Swan.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 1, 2025
The only thing he saw was the bizarre ballerina sloth in his head, the one that was taking shape pencil stroke by pencil stroke on paper.
From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon
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.
