Meanings
plural cancans · alternative can-can
- danceA high-kicking chorus line dance originating in France.
They formed up, in perfect silence, in two lines, facing each other between us and the fire, and then the dance - a sort of infernal and fiendish cancan - began.
1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC - A trick where one leg is brought over the seat, so that both legs are on one side.
Origin
- Frenchcancan
- Frenchcancan
- Englishcancan
Borrowed from French cancan.
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 康康舞
- 康康舞 (kāngkāngwǔ)dance
Czech kankán
- kankándance
Finnish cancan
- cancandance
French cancan
- cancandance
German Cancan
- Cancandance
Hungarian kánkán
- kánkándance
Japanese カンカン, フレンチカンカン
- カンカン (kankan)dance
- フレンチカンカン (Furenchi kankan)dance
Polish kankan
- kankandance
Portuguese cancã
- cancãdance
Russian канка́н
- канка́н (kankán)dance
Swedish cancan
- cancandance
Turkish kankan
- kankandance
Cite this entry
cancan. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cancan
“cancan.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cancan. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cancan,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cancan.
Source: cancan on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.