ballerina

American  

[bal-uh-ree-nuh] / ˌbæl əˈri nə /

noun

• ballerinas
  plural

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.

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ballerina British  

/ ˌbæləˈriːnə /

noun

1. a female ballet dancer

2. the principal female dancer of a ballet company

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ballerina Cultural  

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

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• ballerinas
  plural

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ballerina ballerinas

The ballerina collaboration, Reichert said, would be part of the company’s efforts to hold consumers’ attention with new shoes and sandals in the years ahead.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026

Suwa nevertheless instilled in the fledgling ballerina a discipline and rigor that would carry Morishita through her career.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

In a 2003 interview with Hello! magazine, Lord Snowdon named weekend guests such as the ballerina Margot Fonteyn, financier Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, comedian Peter Sellers, actor Sir John Mills, and author Edna O’Brien.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026

Monson de Kansky never became a world-famous ballerina.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026

I tell her: we were dead, and then Ben managed to spin the car in just the right way, like some kind of brilliant vehicular ballerina.

From "Paper Towns" by John Green

“Many of them have been stretched into new silhouettes of the Samba, for example, into both ballerinas, into mules, into Mary Janes.”

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026

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

“The man-eating tigers, the spinning blades...But I still think a few ballerinas would be nice.”

From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan