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pavane

American  
[puh-vahn, -van, pa-van] / pəˈvɑn, -ˈvæn, paˈvan /
Also pavan

noun

pavanes plural
  1. a stately dance dating from the 16th century.

  2. the music for this dance.


pavane British  
/ -ˈvæn, ˈpævən, pəˈvɑːn /

noun

  1. a slow and stately dance of the 16th and 17th centuries

  2. a piece of music composed for or in the rhythm of this dance, usually characterized by a slow stately triple time

"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 pavane

1525–35; < Middle French < Italian pavana, contraction of padovana (feminine) of Padua ( Italian Padova )

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:

The Sinfonia Concertante this time turns first to a pavane, the Baroque-style dance treated to constant variation both in the orchestra and the organ.

From Los Angeles Times May 21, 2023

Still, there is that perfectly shaped pearl of a pavane that, throughout it all, stays in the memory.

From Los Angeles Times Jan. 9, 2022

It shows how the perfect union, represented by the courtly pavane and other Renaissance dances, can be ruptured by rumor.

From Washington Post

The whole affair, in fact, had developed the aura of a surrealistic ritual, with both sides' forces stepping in circles as if they were performing some stately, stylized pavane.

From Time Magazine Archive

The musicians started to play, and the dancers paired for a stately pavane.

From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein

Without the closest of listening, the seven pavanes can otherwise, most agreeably but also least convincingly, simply flow by as inspired background music.

From Los Angeles Times Nov. 11, 2020

This was the end of the long tragedy of civil strife and of wars of conquest, mingled with the sound of Results of the religious wars. madrigals and psalms and pavanes.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 7 "Fox, George" to "France" by Various

Some day, when the Wateaus of the future are painting the court ladies who again dance pavanes in sunlit glades, wearing wigs and crinoline, such data will amuse.

From Woman as Decoration by Burbank, Emily

Manuel was well liked by the nobility, and when the barons and the fine ladies assembled in the evening for pavanes and branles and pazzamenos nobody danced more statelily than Messire Manuel.

From Figures of Earth by Cabell, James Branch

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