cancan

can·can
C3A1N1C3A1N1
Australia, Canada, US, UK/ˈkænˌkæn/India, UK, Scotland/ˈkanˌkan/New Zealand/ˈkɛnˌkɛn/

noun

A high-kicking chorus line dance originating in France.

UncommonScrabble 10

Meanings

nouncancan (plural cancans)

plural cancans · alternative can-can

  1. 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
    1. broadlydance"Galop Infernal", a movement from Jacques Offenbach's opera Orpheus in the Underworld, commonly associated with and called the cancan.
  2. A trick where one leg is brought over the seat, so that both legs are on one side.
verbcancan (third-person singular simple present cancans, present participle cancanning, simple past and past participle cancanned)

present singular third person cancans · participle present cancanning · participle past cancanned · past cancanned · alternative can-can

  1. To dance the cancan.

Origin

  1. Frenchcancan
  2. Frenchcancan
  3. Englishcancan

Borrowed from French cancan.

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
APA

cancan. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cancan

MLA

“cancan.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cancan. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cancan,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cancan.

Source: cancan on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.