pirouette
Americannoun
-
a whirling about on one foot or on the points of the toes, as in ballet dancing.
-
Dressage. a complete turn in which the horse uses its hind legs as a pivot.
verb (used without object)
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pirouettes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pirouetted,
past participle, past
-
pirouetting
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
pirouettesimple
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pirouettessimple
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have pirouettedperfect
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has pirouettedperfect
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am pirouettingprogressive
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are pirouettingprogressive
-
is pirouettingprogressive
-
have been pirouettingperfect progressive
-
has been pirouettingperfect progressive
Past
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pirouettedsimple
-
had pirouettedperfect
-
was pirouettingprogressive
-
were pirouettingprogressive
-
had been pirouettingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pirouette
1700–10; < French: a whirl, top, feminine of Middle French pirouet, equivalent to pirou- (cognate with Italian pirolo, diminutive of piro peg) + -et -et
Explanation
A dancer's spin, especially when he's balanced on one foot, is a pirouette. A pirouette is a ballet term meaning to whirl or spin while balanced on the toes. In the case of a ballerina, she would pirouette while "en pointe," poised on the very toe of her shoe with the other leg bent. You can also use the word to describe a more casual spin, like an exuberant little boy who pirouettes through the halls of his school. In Old French, the root word pirouet meant "spinning top."
Vocabulary lists containing pirouette
Power Suffix: -ette
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Curtain Call: Dance and Theater Terms
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The Phantom Tollbooth
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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:
“A four-legged creature is hard to make look right because he has to stand up and do things,” he told The Times — athletic things, like performing a pirouette.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026
In Hover mode, the joystick provides fine-grained yaw control, allowing the BlackFly to execute its surreal pirouette.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2025
VAR disallowed the goal because they've said it's a careless challenge - but it's not a challenge, it's a pirouette in the middle of the pitch.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2025
During so-called learning walks, the animals then explore the immediate surroundings around the nest entrance and repeatedly pirouette around their own body axis with short stops in between.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 13, 2024
He appears as nervous as me, which is amazing, since he can do an average of thirteen pirouettes, no matter the shoe, and I wasn’t even sure what a pirouette was all these years.
From "Better Nate Than Ever" by Tim Federle
"I had the time of my life there. It's not a stage-stage school, but of course there's kids doing pirouettes and going 'Aaaaaahhhhh!' in the hallways," Adele told BBC 4 radio in 2022.
From Barron's ● Apr. 27, 2026
And they’re all on TikTok doing, like, “I’ll do 50 pirouettes for ...” I’m like, “Please, I will pay you not to do 50 pirouettes on TikTok. Please just save your body for the stage.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2025
As Abigail pirouettes down the hallway after a victim, there it is, finally: A ballet dancer having fun onscreen.
From New York Times ● Apr. 22, 2024
For the next 30 minutes, the band are on fire, playing with purpose and swagger while Abigail pirouettes around the stage, dressed like Wednesday Addams playing a character from Bridgerton.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2023
From morning till night it continued: the choosing of outfits, the practicing of pirouettes, the making of to-do lists.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
“What is dancing?” he asked jurors as he pranced and pirouetted across the room.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2025
Trailing by a TD, Penix pirouetted out of a sure sack, scampered to the left sideline and heaved a missile that Culp somehow came down with over three Trojan defenders.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 4, 2023
On a recent afternoon, 18 members of Birmingham Royal Ballet spun, pirouetted and leaped across a rehearsal room, with all the grace and skill associated with classical dance.
From New York Times ● Sep. 25, 2023
The forward led Celtic's ferocious press and seems to enjoy a fantastic understanding with a revitalised Rogic, who pirouetted away from three AZ players before finding an outstretched Kyogo to produce a fantastic finish.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2021
But questions pirouetted around Penelope’s mind faster than even the ballerinas of the Imperial Russian Ballet could have managed: Who had requested these awful stories about children and wolves?
From "The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling" by Maryrose Wood
Playing the Dead’s “Blues for Allah” on this tour — an LP rooted in Middle Eastern scales, pirouetting time signatures and improvisational telepathy — put him in communion with his old friend.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026
The Hawick native picked her moment to pounce beautifully, pirouetting beyond a tackle and grounding.
From BBC ● Apr. 29, 2023
Feverishly pursued by a formidable gangster known only as the Maraboo, Jonas transforms into Barbara, a veritable bombshell with billowing bronze locks, pirouetting alongside Nelly in glittering jumpsuits for a spellbound crowd.
From New York Times ● Apr. 27, 2023
Pulling myself up a little taller, I began pirouetting to a waltz from Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake.”
From Washington Post ● Mar. 14, 2023
Afterward, she stood with her mother in the busy Doubletree Hotel hallway, girls posing and pirouetting all around, while her mother talked to the coach.
From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray
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.
