Meanings
barre1
nounbarre (plural barres)
plural barres
- balletA handrail fixed to a wall used for ballet exercises.
- abbreviationellipsisentertainmentEllipsis of barre chord.
verbbarre (third-person singular simple present barres, present participle barring, simple past and past participle barred)
present singular third person barres · participle present barring · participle past barred · past barred
- entertainmentTo form a barre chord on an instrument.
Barre2
proper nounBarre (countable and uncountable, plural Barres)
plural Barres
- countableuncountableA surname from French.
- A place in the United States:
- countableuncountableA town and census-designated place therein, in Worcester County, Massachusetts, named after Isaac Barré.
- countableuncountableA town in Orleans County, New York, named after Barre, MA.
- countableuncountableA city and town in Washington County, Vermont, named after Isaac Barré; the city is surrounded by the town.
- countableuncountableA town in La Crosse County, Wisconsin, probably after Barre, VT.
Origin
barre · noun, verb
- Frenchbarre
- Englishbarre
Borrowed from French barre. Doublet of bar.
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Barre · proper noun
From the French surname, named after several places containing Barre in France.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish tanko
- tankoa handrail fixed to a wall
French barre
- barrea handrail fixed to a wall
German Ballettstange
- Ballettstangea handrail fixed to a wall
Vietnamese bấm ba-rê
- bấm ba-rêto form a barre chord
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with barre
All rhymes →Sounds the same
Anagrams
Cite this entry
APA
barre. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barre
MLA
“barre.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barre. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “barre,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barre.
Source: barre on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.