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fouetté

American  
[fwe-tey] / fwɛˈteɪ /

noun

Ballet.
  • fouettés
    plural
  1. a whipping movement of the free leg, often executed during a turn.


fouetté British  
/ fwete /

noun

  1. a step in ballet in which the dancer stands on one foot and makes a whiplike movement with the other

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of fouetté

1820–30; < French, past participle of fouetter to whip

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:

In Eliot’s book, Mr. Mistoffelees is a precious creation; in the musical, he is a gay icon, bedazzled like the night sky, sometimes pulling off twenty-four fouetté turns in a row.

From The New Yorker Dec. 16, 2019

Arabesque, fouetté turn, soulful liquid melt to the mat with her arms outstretched.

From Slate Jul. 23, 2018

But given his skill and my incompetence, this was like a ballerina demonstrating a fouetté for a toddler with a broken leg.

From The Guardian Sep. 17, 2017

Yet the action of one firm thigh propels her around in what looks remarkably like what ballet people would call a fouetté turn.

From New York Times Jun. 24, 2013

And there was a small group of Marines, a little uncomfortable in their suits, ready to watch the story of their lives told onstage through incomprehensible grand jeté, fouetté en tournant and chassé.

From Washington Post

Meaning was found in Siegfried’s impetuous leap and the Black Swan’s studied 32 fouettés.

From Los Angeles Times Jun. 25, 2025

But she was less secure as the man-hungry doppelganger Odile in the ballet's third act, faltering on her fouettés and finally abandoning those whipping turns prematurely.

From Washington Post Jul. 12, 2019

Back then, watching Svetlana Khorkina was “like seeing a giraffe perfectly execute the 32 fouettés in Swan Lake.”

From Slate Aug. 15, 2016

The effect — material doing fouettés and chassés around the body — was.

From New York Times Mar. 9, 2016

Then maybe next time a movie like Black Swan comes along, the leading lady can do her own fouettés.

From The Guardian Jan. 20, 2011

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