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
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
His budget would be $127 billion funded in part by the pied-à-terre tax which is expected to move ahead.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
THE pied-à-terre tax is something of a compromise to a compromise.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
I am Parson Homo and this is my pied-à-terre.
From The Green Rust by Wallace, Edgar
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
Some agents expect their clients shopping for pieds-à-terre will begin hunting for homes specifically below $5 million, undercutting any efforts to raise new revenue.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 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
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
Some local politicians have suggested taxing the owners of pieds-à-terre who are not city residents.
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.
