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)
-
pirouettes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pirouetted,
past participle, past
-
pirouetting
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
pirouettesimple
-
pirouettessimple
-
have pirouettedperfect
-
has pirouettedperfect
-
am pirouettingprogressive
-
are pirouettingprogressive
-
is pirouettingprogressive
-
have been pirouettingperfect progressive
-
has been pirouettingperfect progressive
Past
-
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:
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
A flick, followed by a pirouette and pass into Adams was another highlight.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2025
A jeté flashes in silhouette, a pirouette vanishes like a whisper.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2024
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
If a pirouette actually were a pastry, I’d be delighted to have a pirouette competition with Shawn.
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
They have pensions, they have healthcare; in America, they’re doing pirouettes on TikTok to try and raise money for their toe shoes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2025
It was his dance teacher who filmed the young boy in June 2020 as he practised pirouettes barefoot in the rain.
From BBC ● Dec. 25, 2023
Shortly after launching on 1 July, the European space observatory Euclid started performing tiny, unexpected pirouettes.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 10, 2023
But the Emperor’s friend covered himself with glory, for he danced everything, whether he knew it or not, and introduced impromptu pirouettes when the figures bewildered him.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
Moments before the break, prop Luke Yates pirouetted elegantly past Cooper Jenkins to slide in next to the sticks as Irwin levelled the scores with the boot as half-time approached.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
“What is dancing?” he asked jurors as he pranced and pirouetted across the room.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2025
Rather than poignant goodbyes, Hearst opted for lively samba beats, leaving an indelible mark on the onlookers as she lithely pirouetted past guests carefree alongside one of Brazil’s most reputed Samba schools.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 28, 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
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
She did it again on the very next possession, this time coming down from the top of the key, pirouetting into the paint and dropping in the easy two-footer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2025
As the song peaked, they were joined on stage by a blond mullet-haired ice skater, pirouetting in a somewhat limited space.
From BBC ● May 11, 2023
Elsewhere in the country, ballets are also pirouetting up from the page.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 1, 2023
This iron-rich dancer is capable of pirouetting at ever-changing speeds.
From New York Times ● Jan. 23, 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.
