troupe
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
noun
verb
Synonym Usage
See troop.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of troupe
1815–25, < French: troop
Explanation
You can call a group of performers a troupe. The kids you dance with are your dance troupe, and the jugglers and clowns at your friend's party might be a circus troupe. If you love performing improvisational comedy, you may want to join a local improv troupe, and if you like the idea of caroling at Christmas time, you can form a troupe of singers to sing carols with in December. Troupe is a French word meaning "company of performers," which earlier meant "company of soldiers." It shares a root with troop.
Vocabulary lists containing troupe
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Theater - Introductory
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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:
Oddie was born in Rochdale, near Manchester, and grew up in Birmingham before attending Cambridge University, where he was a member of the illustrious Footlights comedy troupe.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Chip falls in with a troupe of street performers, evades the police, juggles along the Seine and eventually wanders into a smoky bar, where Penelope is strumming her guitar.
From Salon ● Jun. 30, 2026
An hour before the climb, I arrive at the Zimmerman Bandstand, where a troupe wearing Navy whites plays jaunty tunes.
From Slate ● Jun. 24, 2026
Is the thief a member of The Incredible Flying Squirrels circus troupe performing daring leaps in the attic?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Charlie and Zooey couldn’t stop touching each other, and Mom spent nearly every minute in the kitchen, making trays of hors d’oeuvres a troupe of traveling acrobats couldn’t have finished.
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
The band takes care with its stages as a platform for Filipino culture — it champions local fashion designers in stage outfits, and its backup dancers are from elite troupes in the Philippines.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2026
Vaudeville troupes traveled the country by rail, performing at sites from small-town opera houses to urban theaters seating several thousand people.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 15, 2026
Until Friday, Amdjarass hosts dance troupes, musicians, traditional storytellers, craftspeople, cooks and nomadic camel drivers from across the vast region.
From Barron's ● Feb. 10, 2026
Behind him, the production took care of everything else: the energetic dance troupes, sophisticated light and sound backdrops and a full-fledged backing orchestra.
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2025
He had seen them on the kingsroad, troupes of mothers and children and anxious fathers who had gazed on his horses and wagons with covetous eyes.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
So she did what came naturally to her: She trouped.
From New York Times ● Dec. 29, 2016
We trouped down the stairs into a long, narrow, cavelike space burrowing into the hill, taken up almost entirely by a gleaming wood bar.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 8, 2015
Outfitted in caps and gowns, the singer Nellie McKay and her musicians trouped onto the stage of Feinstein’s at Loews Regency on Tuesday evening with mischievous smirks on their faces.
From New York Times ● Mar. 22, 2012
His orchestra trouped around Spain, slept in towns, hamlets & villages.
From Time Magazine Archive
Hastily donning fresh jungle gear supplied the night before in anticipation of the mission, the three cadets trouped wearily out of their rooms and rode down to the lobby in the vacuum elevator.
From The Revolt on Venus by Glanzman, Louis
Not long now: The teams are out on the pitch, Sheffield United trouping out first, closely followed by Liverpool.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 24, 2020
That appeal has sent “Hamilton” trouping across the United States.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2017
And in her briskly written account of Mediterranean travel, study and U. S. trouping, critics found a key to the pleasures of mime that many of them, had long fumbled for in vain.
From Time Magazine Archive
Most of the 200 other trouping golfers, who hopefully embarked on the winter circuit last December, pocketed nothing but Experience.
From Time Magazine Archive
Taking over the role of Da with only about 20 hours of rehearsal, says Keith, was "just a matter of trouping it."
From 100 New Yorkers of the 1970s by Millard, Max
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.
