zapateado

American

[zah-puh-tee-ah-doh, thah-pah-te-ah-thaw, sah-] / ˌzɑ pə tiˈɑ doʊ, ˌθɑ pɑ tɛˈɑ ðɔ, ˌsɑ- /

noun

a Spanish dance for a solo performer, marked by rhythmic tapping of the heels.

zapateado British

/ θapateˈaðo /

noun

a Spanish dance with stamping and very fast footwork

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

zapateados

plural

Etymology

Origin of zapateado

1885–90; < Spanish: clog or shoe dance, noun use of past participle of zapatear to strike with the shoe, tap, derivative of zapato shoe. See sabot, -ade ¹

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.

Vanessa Sanchez and the group La Mezcla, from San Francisco, mix modern tap and zapateado to celebrate the women of the Zoot Suit Riots of the 1940s.

From New York Times • Dec. 31, 2020

At lunch, having done a zapateado before the avid lenses of a team from Paris Match, he gives Dominguin some tips in the art of gracefully demolishing a bull.

From Time Magazine Archive

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023