Tarantella

//ˌtɛɹənˈtɛlə// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A rapid dance in 6/8 time, originating in Italy, or a piece of music for such a dance.

    "The set in which they found themselves was composed of English, and Amy was compelled to walk decorously through a cotillion, feeling all the while as if she could dance the tarantella with relish."

  2. 2
    a lively whirling Italian dance for two persons wordnet
  3. 3
    music composed in six-eight time for dancing the tarantella wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
dancehustlejigtarantelle

Example

More examples

"The set in which they found themselves was composed of English, and Amy was compelled to walk decorously through a cotillion, feeling all the while as if she could dance the tarantella with relish."

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian tarantella, a diminutive of Taranto, a town in southern Italy (but popularly associated with tarantola (“tarantula”), on the belief that the dance was variously a result of, or cure for, its bite).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.