minuet

[ min-yoo-et ]

noun

1. a slow, stately dance in triple meter, popular in the 17th and 18th centuries.
2. a piece of music for such a dance or in its rhythm.

minuet

/ ˌmɪnjʊˈɛt /

noun

1. a stately court dance of the 17th and 18th centuries in triple time
2. a piece of music composed for or in the rhythm of this dance, sometimes as a movement in a suite, sonata, or symphony See also scherzo

Word History and Origins

Origin of minuet¹

1665–75; < French menuet, equivalent to menu small ( menu ) + -et -et; so called from the shortness of the dancers' steps

Word History and Origins

Origin of minuet¹

C17: from French menuet dainty (referring to the dance steps), from menu small

Example Sentences

All along, the atomic minuet with Tehran has been built on assumptions—ours and theirs—that are, as it turns out, erroneous.

From The Daily Beast

And “Visiting”—about a father-son road trip to Narragansett, R.I.—is a prickly minuet of paternal longing.

From The Daily Beast

The first was the private, then public, minuet of reassurances to the two visitors.

From The Daily Beast

Frivolity enveloped the company as with a silken veil, and yet everything moved as politely and as sedately as a minuet.

From Project Gutenberg

The hedges are shaped into peacocks, and not unfrequently into ladies and gentlemen dancing a minuet.

From Project Gutenberg

Harlequin had recruited a columbine and a shepherdess, and he introduced these ladies as partners for the promised minuet.

From Project Gutenberg

They tell me she walks through mathematics like a young duchess through the minuet.

From Project Gutenberg

I had never seen the minuet danced with more grace and spirit.

From Project Gutenberg