pirouette
French, noun
pirouette is a French feminine noun meaning “pirouette; a whirling or turning on the toes in dancing” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of pirouetter. With an accent, pirouetté is a different word: “past participle of pirouetter”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Tour entier qu’on fait de tout le corps, en se tenant sur la pointe d’un seul pied”.
What does pirouette mean in English?
noun
- 1
femininepirouette; a whirling or turning on the toes in dancing
- 2
femininea whirling volt movement made by a horse
verb
- 1
first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- 2
second-person singular imperative
verb
- 1
past participle of pirouetter
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Tour entier qu’on fait de tout le corps, en se tenant sur la pointe d’un seul pied. 2. Sorte de volte que fait le cheval sur sa longueur dans une seule et même place. 3. Dérobade. 4. Pièce de bois en haut d’un hautbois Renaissance (chalémie) dont dépasse l’anche et sur laquelle les lèvres de l’instrumentiste viennent en butée.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of pirouette
- pirouettes plural
- pirouettée feminine
- pirouettés masculine plural
- pirouettées feminine plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to pirouette
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is pirouette in French?
pirouette appears about once in every 1 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).