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pointe

UK/pwæ̃t/US/pwɑnt/
nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,614 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: pointes

Pointe is dancing on the tips of the toes. On pointe, pointe shoes, go up on pointe.

The shoes have a hardened box at the toe and the dancer's own strength does the rest, which takes years to build — teachers will not let a pupil begin before the bones of the foot have hardened. It is spelled with an e and is French.

Lambtron · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of pointe

  1. 1nounpointeDancing on the tips of the toes.C1

    “After years of ballet lessons, she was finally allowed to dance on pointe.”

pointe is a technique.

Where it comes from

French pointe means a tip or point, from Latin punctum. Point is the same word without the e.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *pewǵ-

  2. French

    pointe — point, tip

  3. English, today

    pointe

From French pointe (“point, tip”). a doublet of point and ponto and puncto and punctum and punt and punto.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Dance

Practise this word

pointe in the wild

  • A pointe shoe (UK:, US: ), also referred to as a ballet shoe, is a type of shoe worn by ballet dancers when performing pointe work.

    Pointe shoe

  • Although both men and women are capable of pointe work, it is most often performed by women.

    Pointe technique

  • Extensive training and practice are required to develop the strength and technique needed for pointe work.

    Pointe technique

  • Bloch is an Australian-based manufacturer of pointe shoes and other types of dance shoes, dance costumes, and dance fashion accessories.

    Bloch (company)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • en pointe
  • laser pointer