pied-à-terre
Americannoun
plural
pieds-à-terrenoun
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.
Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax, which targets high-value second homes that owners use only part of the year, is intuitively appealing.
From Barron's • Apr. 17, 2026
The couple split their time between their Bel-Air estate, their New York pied-à-terre and a seven-bedroom, circa-1930s beach house they owned in Malibu.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 19, 2025
Projection designers Yee Eun Nam and Elizabeth Barrett create a kaleidoscopic background on Chika Shimizu’s pied-à-terre set.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 28, 2025
The hunt: They wanted a pied-à-terre in Manhattan.
From New York Times • Aug. 6, 2022
Then, too, he expressed a wish for a pied-à-terre in the city, and as Mary had very tender associations with the little studio she was glad to think of keeping it.
From The Nest Builder by Hale, Beatrice Forbes-Robertson
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.
