pied-à-terre
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pied-à-terre
1820–30; < French: literally, foot on ground
Explanation
When your friend talks about his pied-a-terre in the city, it's just his fancy way of mentioning the apartment he keeps there to stay in from time to time. This borrowing from French, literally "foot on ground," designates a small second home. Dictionaries are in general content to stop their explanation of the origins of pied-a-terre by simply translating it, as if this were sufficient to explain how it inherited this meaning. On the other hand, it would hardly be a home if you didn't have your foot on the ground there some time.
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 sister act also owned a pied-à-terre in Manhattan.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 8, 2026
Griffin has criticized Mamdani for singling him out as a prime target for the pied-à-terre tax.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026
Mayor Mamdani also met with other New York CEOs, including Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan, following backlash to a pied-à-terre tax video.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 2026
The mayor will still pursue a targeted pied-à-terre tax on second homes worth $5 million or more and other revenue streams.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026
The house in Wilton Street was a small bijou place which my father had occupied as a pied-à-terre in town, he being a widower.
From Hushed Up! A Mystery of London by Le Queux, William
As noted by the Wall Street Journal, the tax would “target wealthy individuals who own these pieds-à-terre but primarily live outside the city” and is aimed at closing the city’s $12 billion annual budget gap.
From MarketWatch ● May 1, 2026
It would specifically target wealthy individuals who own these pieds-à-terre but primarily live outside the city.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026
Hochul says the measure would raise $500 million a year by taxing pieds-à-terre and help close a $12 billion New York City budget gap.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026
Some of Dr. Zhang’s patients, envisioning further babies and more in vitro fertilization procedures and births in New York, wind up buying pieds-à-terre on West 57th Street, he told me.
From New York Times ● Apr. 27, 2017
A proposal from the Fiscal Policy Institute would impose a graduated tax on pieds-à-terre worth $5 million or more.
From New York Times ● Feb. 7, 2015
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.
