fouetté

American  

[fwe-tey] / fwɛˈteɪ /

noun

Ballet.

fouettés plural

1. a whipping movement of the free leg, often executed during a turn.

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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

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• fouettés
  plural

Etymology

Origin of fouetté

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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fouetté fouettés

Boylston matched him with fouetté turns so fast you could almost feel the breeze.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 1, 2022

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

Though she stumbled toward the end of Odile’s fouetté turns on Tuesday, nothing interrupted the dramatic impetus of her performance.

From New York Times ● Sep. 23, 2015

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

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2025

If 32 fouettés, or whipping turns, are out of reach, substitute a circle of piqué turns.

From New York Times ● Feb. 25, 2020

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

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