belly dance
belly dance noun: a form of dance originating in the Middle East and characterized by movements of the torso.
Noun
belly dance (countable and uncountable, plural belly dances)
- A form of dance originating in the Middle East and characterized by movements of the torso.
- Synonyms:
- oriental dance
Verb
belly dance (third-person singular simple present belly dances, present participle belly dancing, simple past and past participle belly danced)
- To perform a belly dance.
belly dance meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Sinhala
belly dance in Hindi
- form of dance
- बेली डांस belī ḍāns
belly dance in Tamil
- form of dance
- தொப்பை நடனம் toppai naṭaṉam
belly dance in Urdu
- form of dance
- بیلی ڈانس
belly dance in Sinhala
- form of dance
- බඩ නැටුම baḍa næṭuma
More languagesFewer languages
- belly dance in Tagalog
- sayaw sa silangan
- belly dance in Arabic
- رَقْص شَرْقِيّ raqṣ šarqiyy, رَقْص بَلَدِيّ raqṣ baladiyy
- belly dance in Malay
- tarian gelek
- belly dance in Indonesian
- tari perut
- belly dance in Persian
- رقص عربی raqs 'arabi
- belly dance in Thai
- ระบำหน้าท้อง rá-bam-nâa-thong
- belly dance in Vietnamese
- múa bụng
Synonyms of belly dance
Forms of belly dance
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | belly dances |
| alternative form | bellydance |
| alternative form | belly-dance |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | belly dances |
| present participle | belly dancing |
| past participle | belly danced |
| past | belly danced |
Origin of belly dance
Calque of French danse du ventre, equivalent to belly + dance. First attested in English in 1889, in an article about that year's Exposition Universelle in Paris in the November 22 edition of the Yorkshire Factory Times: "A café in the Rue du Caire attracted 2,000 spectators daily to see the ‘belly dance’, and realised a total of 400,000 francs." Early sources also used the French term danse du ventre as-is.
Words formed from belly dance
Questions about belly dance
- What does belly dance mean?
- Belly dance means a form of dance originating in the Middle East and characterized by movements of the torso.
- What is belly dance in Hindi?
- Belly dance in Hindi is बेली डांस (belī ḍāns). See Belly dance meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is belly dance?
- Belly dance can be a noun or a verb.
- What is the plural of belly dance?
- The plural of belly dance is belly dances.
Words near belly dance in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: belly dance (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-PerfectSoundWhatever-belly dance.wav.
Cite this entry: “belly dance.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/belly_dance. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.