Word.ws English Dictionary

dance to a different tune

dance to a different tune verb: to behave differently; to march to the beat of a different drummer. Also the alternative form of dance to a new tune.

Verb

dance to a different tune (third-person singular simple present dances to a different tune, present participle dancing to a different tune, simple past and past participle danced to a different tune)

  1. To behave differently; to march to the beat of a different drummer.
    • In one way the book is a straightforward defence of eccentricity, a plea for the importance of valuing individuals who choose to dance to a different tune.2011, Scott Lyall, Margery Palmer McCulloch, The Edinburgh Companion to Hugh MacDiarmid, →ISBN, page 128
    • Whether they walk or take a cab, they arrive at exactly the right time to bag a window seat and settle themselves down in comfort for their trip. Alas, I dance to a different tune. I have been catching trains all my life and throughout this time I have always been afraid of missing them.2012, anonymous author, The Erotic Memoirs of a Lusty Victorian Rake: Volume 2, →ISBN
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dance, different, tune.

Also used as

dance to a different tune is also the alternative form of dance to a new tune.

Forms of dance to a different tune

third-person singular presentdances to a different tune
present participledancing to a different tune
past participledanced to a different tune
pastdanced to a different tune

Questions about dance to a different tune

What does dance to a different tune mean?
Dance to a different tune means to behave differently; to march to the beat of a different drummer.
What part of speech is dance to a different tune?
Dance to a different tune is a verb.
What is the past tense of dance to a different tune?
The past tense of dance to a different tune is danced to a different tune.

Words near dance to a different tune in the dictionary

  1. dance stick
  2. dance studio
  3. dance studios
  4. dance the hempen jig
  5. dance the Tyburn jig
  6. dance to a different tune
  7. dance to a new tune
  8. dance to someone's tune
  9. dance upon nothing
  10. dance with the devil
  11. dance with the one that brought ya

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dance to a different tune (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.

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