step dance

step dance noun: a dance emphasizing the dancer's steps.

Noun

step dance (plural step dances)

A dance emphasizing the dancer's steps.
- He then gave us a step-dance, so as not to dwell too long on one subject.1876, John Ruskin, “Letter LXVIII. Notes and Correspondence.”, in Fors Clavigera. Letters to the Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain, volume VI, Orpington, Kent: George Allen, →OCLC, page 269
- Orth'ris began rowlin' his eyes an' crackin' his fingers an' dancin' a step-dance for to impress the Headman.1887 April 11, Rudyard Kipling, “The Taking of Lungtungpen”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co.; London: W. Thacker & Co., published 1888, →OCLC, page 103
A postcopulatory behaviour of whistling ducks, genus Dendrocygna.

step dance (third-person singular simple present step dances, present participle step dancing, simple past and past participle step danced)

(intransitive) To perform a step dance.
- […] place, where we boxed, played skittles, step-danced — a place in which I could say to all these dear street-corner, out-of-work people, "Come in and spend […]1903, Charles Edward Osborne, The life of Father Dolling, E. Arnold, page 254

Noun
plural	step dances
alternative form	stepdance
alternative form	step-dance
Verb
third-person singular present	step dances
present participle	step dancing
past participle	step danced
past	step danced

From step + dance.

What does step dance mean?: Step dance means a dance emphasizing the dancer's steps.
What part of speech is step dance?: Step dance can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of step dance?: The plural of step dance is step dances.

Adapted from Wiktionary: step 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: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “step dance.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/step_dance. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.