cancan
can·can/ˈkænˌkæn/noun, verb
cancan is a noun meaning “A high-kicking chorus line dance originating in France” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled C-A-N-C-A-N and has 2 syllables (can·can), and it appears about once in every 16 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of cancan is cancans.
What does cancan mean?
noun
- 1
A high-kicking chorus line dance originating in France.
- 2
"Galop Infernal", a movement from Jacques Offenbach's opera Orpheus in the Underworld, commonly associated with and called the cancan.
- 3
A trick where one leg is brought over the seat, so that both legs are on one side.
verb
- 1
To dance the cancan.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce cancan?
- US /ˈkænˌkæn/
- UK /ˈkanˌkan/
- /ˈkɛnˌkɛn/
Cancan has 2 syllables, split can·can in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-cancan.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of cancan
- cancans plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- can-can
- cancanning participle, present
- cancanned participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is cancan?
Cancan appears about once in every 16 million words in written English, the 121,279th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Cancan in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense dance:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does cancan come from?
Borrowed from French cancan.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).