pirouette

Borrowed from French pirouette, see there for more; attested since 1706.[1]

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌpɪ.ɹʊˈɛt/, /ˌpɪ.ɹuːˈɛt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌpɪ.ɹəˈwɛt/, /ˌpɪ.ɹuːˈɛt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛt

pirouette (plural pirouettes)

1. A whirling or turning on the toes in dancing, primarily in ballet.
2. The whirling about of a horse.

pirouette (third-person singular simple present pirouettes, present participle pirouetting, simple past and past participle pirouetted)

1. (intransitive) To perform a pirouette; to whirl on the toes, like a dancer.
   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VIII:

     I came down like a sack of coals. The pulse was rapid, the blood pressure high, and for awhile the Blue Room pirouetted about me like an adagio dancer.

• Glossary of ballet on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Pirouette (dressage) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Borrowed from French pirouette, see there for more.

• IPA^(key): /ˌpi.ruˈɛ.tə/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pi‧rou‧et‧te
• Rhymes: -ɛtə

pirouette f (plural pirouettes or pirouetten)

1. pirouette

• IPA^(key): /pi.ʁwɛt/

• Audio

  (file)

From a Gallo-Roman root *pir- („peg, plug“, hence Italian piruolo (“peg top”)) and -ette (diminutive suffix). The word originally meant a “spinning top” (15th century).[1]

pirouette f (plural pirouettes)

1. a whirling or turning on the toes in dancing
2. (sports, equestrians) a whirling volt movement made by a horse

• pirouetter

pirouette

1. inflection of pirouetter:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “pirouette”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• Vocabulaire de la danse classique on the French Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^fr