pas de deux
Americannoun
-
pas de deux
plural
-
a dance by two persons.
-
(in classical ballet) a set dance for a ballerina and a danseur noble, consisting typically of an entrée, an adagio, a variation for each dancer, and a coda.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pas de deux
1755–65; < French: literally, step for two
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.
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
For the occasion, artistic director Susan Jaffe astutely chose 11 one-act ballets and four pas de deux.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2025
The embrace is a signal for a new beginning: an intimate pas de deux that unfolds like a dream within a dream.
From New York Times ● Feb. 14, 2024
This isn’t the first time I’ve danced the act-two pas de deux from Swan Lake onstage as Odile, the dark and cunning daughter of the evil sorcerer Von Rothbart.
From "Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina" by Michaela DePrince
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.
