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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  
/ ˈpævən, pəˈvɑːn, -ˈvæn /

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:

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

The trick is to listen closely to, say, a splendidly meandering Byrd pavane without the distracting frustration of fussing over what your ears miss, because you will miss much.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 10, 2021

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

From the wings I heard and watched the pavane of tragedy move steadily toward its climax.

From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou

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

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 Emily Burbank

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 James Branch Cabell

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

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