dance

AUSDANS/dæns/DAHNS/dɑːns/

Verbdances, dancing, danced

Noun pluraldances

15 meanings of dance

Practice

1
move to musicverbintransitive
To move rhythmically with steps, usually to music, or to perform a particular dance such as a waltz.
Couples dance across the floor as the band plays a slow waltz.
He danced gracefully through the entire performance.
UsageYour partner follows with: dance with her. To invite someone, Would you like to dance?
Note
In a question, the plain verb often asks about skill or habit rather than the present moment. In the American novelist Winston Churchill's The Celebrity (1897), "So you do not dance, Mr. Crocker?" asks whether he dances at all.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Winston Churchill was an American novelist. en.wikipedia.org
The quoted question appears in Churchill's The Celebrity; Mrs. Cooke addresses Mr. Crocker and asks whether he dances generally. gutenberg.org
2
nouncountable or uncountable
A series of rhythmic steps or movements, usually performed to music for pleasure or as a way of socializing.
Before the music started, the instructor broke the dance into simple steps so the beginners could follow along.
She choreographed a graceful dance for the spring recital.
UsageA dance is one set of steps: do a dance, learn a dance. Without a it names the activity in general.
Similarroutine
3
noununcountable
The art, profession, and study of moving rhythmically to music.
He devoted his life to dance, both as a performer and a teacher.
The university offers degrees in dance and music.
UsageNo a here: study dance, a career in dance, modern dance.
4
nouncountable or uncountable
A party or social event organized mainly around dancing.
Half the town turned up for the harvest dance on Saturday night.
The officers' dance was the social event of the season.
UsageYou go to a dance and meet people at a dance: the school dance.
Similarball, hop
5
club musicnoununcountable
Popular music, mostly electronic, made for dancing in clubs, including styles such as house, techno and trance.
The radio station dropped classic rock and switched to dance, filling its late-night hours with looping beats and sampled vocals.
He produces dance in a small home studio.
UsageUsed like a style name, with no a: listen to dance. Dance music is common too.
6
move lightlyverbintransitive
To skip, leap, or flit about with quick, light movements.
Reflections of the streetlights danced across the wet pavement.
Leaves dance in the cold wind along the path.
UsageDance around an issue means avoid dealing with it directly. Eyes can dance with pleasure.
Similarflicker, skip, flutter, bob, prance
Note
Here the dancers are rarely people: shadows, eyes and the northern lights do the moving. In Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, shadows dance in glassy waters, and eyes can dance with pleasure to show a lively face.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Lord Byron wrote Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. gutenberg.org
Shadows dance in glassy waters in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. gutenberg.org
7
nouncountable or uncountable
A musical composition written in the rhythm of a particular dance.
The suite closes with a stately dance in triple time.
Baroque composers often included a dance between the slower sections.
8
nouncountablefigurative
A delicate, skillfully handled sequence of moves and countermoves between people or forces, seen as like a dance.
The talks became an elaborate diplomatic dance, each side testing how far the other would bend.
The central bank's dance with the markets means hinting at rate changes long before making them.
UsageOften with an adjective: an elaborate dance, a delicate dance; also a dance with someone.
Note
The image is of partners who need each other: each side moves in answer to the other, and one misstep can throw off both.

Less common meanings

9
verbtransitive
To cause someone or something to move nimbly or merrily about.
On Saturday mornings she would dance the kids around the living room to old records.
He danced his partner the length of the ballroom.
UsageThe object is whoever or whatever is moved, usually with a direction: dance a child around the room.
Similarwhirl, twirl, swing
Note
Here the one dancing is set in motion by someone else. Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus gives the tender version, a grandfather who "danced thee on his knee."
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Titus Andronicus is a play by William Shakespeare. en.wikipedia.org
The quoted words occur in Titus Andronicus: Lucius describes Titus dancing his grandson on his knee. shakespeare.mit.edu
10
hard tasknoundatedfigurativelycountable or uncountable
Any task, action, or movement that is strenuous or hard to carry out.
Similarordeal, struggle, slog, chore
Note
An old-fashioned figure in which any hard business becomes a dance. In one of Peter Christen Asbjørnsen's Norwegian tales, as translated by H. L. Brækstad, chasing scattering hares is "quite another dance" from lying at home catching fleas with mittens on. The phrase marks a shift to something far more strenuous.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
The quoted passage appears in Asbjørnsen's tales translated by H. L. Brækstad. en.wiktionary.org
11
get intimateverbeuphemisticfigurativelyintransitive
To make love or have sex, expressed in a playful or suggestive way.
Once the kids were finally asleep, she tugged him toward the bedroom and whispered that it was time to dance.
By the end of that summer, the two of them had danced together under the sheets more than once.
Note
A euphemism that depends on deniability: the word stays innocent on the surface, and only context tips it over. A line like "You make me feel like dancing" can be read either way, and that is exactly its appeal.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
The quoted wording is documented as an illustrative example of the sexual sense of dance; no speaker or work is attributed. en.wiktionary.org
12
hangingverbeuphemisticfigurativelyintransitive
To kick and convulse as a result of being hanged.
The highwayman danced at the rope's end as the crowd fell silent.
In old ballads, a highwayman who got caught would usually dance at the end of a rope.
Similarhang, swing
Note
Gallows language, grim even as a euphemism, in which the hanged body's kicking is likened to dancing. Writers return to set phrases such as left to dance and a death dance, the latter in Walter Noble Burns's The Saga of Billy the Kid (1926).
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
Dance is used figuratively for movement during hanging. en.wikisource.org
Left to dance occurs in writing about hanging. en.wiktionary.org
Walter Noble Burns wrote The Saga of Billy the Kid. fadedpage.com
A death dance appears in the book in reference to hanging. en.wikisource.org
The Saga of Billy the Kid was first published in 1926. simonandschuster.com
13
noun
A repetitive movement used by worker honey bees to communicate with one another.
14
verb
Of a worker honey bee, to perform a repeated pattern of movements that passes information to others in the hive.
15
noun
A horizontal band modified into a zigzag, crossing the center of a coat of arms from one side to the other.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of dance apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

Vulgar Latin *dantiāre, whose origin is uncertain, became Anglo-Norman dauncer and then Middle English dauncen. It replaced Old English sealtian and partly replaced Old English hlēapan, meaning "to leap, dance, run," the source of modern leap.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

Anglo-Norman dauncer derives from reconstructed Vulgar Latin *dantiāre, whose origin is uncertain. en.wiktionary.org
Middle English dauncen was borrowed from Anglo-Norman dauncer. en.wiktionary.org
Dance replaced Old English sealtian and partly replaced Old English hlēapan. en.wiktionary.org
Old English hlēapan meant to leap, dance, and run. en.wiktionary.org
Modern leap derives from Old English hlēapan. en.wiktionary.org