Jump To:

• pas
  pas

  noun

  a step or series of steps in ballet.
• PA's
  PA's

  plural noun

  mountaineering a type of rock boot
• PAS
  PAS

  abbreviation

  physician-assisted suicide: a practice in which a terminally-ill person requests a medical practitioner to administer a lethal dose of medication

pas

American  

[pah] / pɑ /

noun

1. a step or series of steps in ballet.

2. right of precedence.

---

pas ¹ British  

/ pɑ, pɑː /

noun

1. a dance step or movement, esp in ballet

2. rare the right to precede; precedence

---

PA's ² British  

plural noun

1. mountaineering a type of rock boot

---

PAS ³ British  

abbreviation

1. physician-assisted suicide: a practice in which a terminally-ill person requests a medical practitioner to administer a lethal dose of medication

---

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• pas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of pas

1695–1705; < French < Latin passus. See pace ¹

Example Sentences

It is a pas de deux of contrasts—roughness and polish, hardness and softness, danger and safety.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026

On this week’s Slate Plus exclusive, Timothée Chalamet enters the pas de deux between an Oscar-nominated actor and a public itching for a villain.

From Slate • Mar. 13, 2026

These comparisons aren’t exactly nuanced but they are stark and, for most of the film, Franco just asks us to watch them move together and apart, in a strange, avoidant pas de deux.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 27, 2026

"A different style and completely different colours," Andy chuckled - his wife Danni only spotted the faux pas when she got to the school gates.

From BBC • Jan. 30, 2026

“N’est-ce pas, monsieur, qu’il y a un cadeau pour Mademoiselle Eyre dans votre petit coffre?”

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë