cancan

noun

can·​can ˈkan-ˌkan 

: a woman's dance of French origin characterized by high kicking usually while holding up the front of a full ruffled skirt

Examples of cancan in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Montmartre – Period drama about a young French cancan dancer trying to find her brother and sister, and the person who assassinated her father. —Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 19 Feb. 2025

Later, as slow-motion scenes of a horse overlay cancan dancers and the men bond through a haze of booze and fresh air, Pierre reminisces on the prairies and the stars. —Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 31 Jan. 2025

While the cancan never gets old, something just as French and risqué that’s lesser known is Madame Arthur, a drag cabaret and club in Pigalle where Serge Gainsbourg first played. —Lane Nieset, Travel + Leisure, 22 Jan. 2025

The lucky buyers were the Bloomingdale Brothers who resold one dress in their department store, and Koster and Bial’s Music Hall, a notorious nightclub known for its lewd entertainment and cancan dancers, who gave the other dress to one of their performers—the actress Jennie Joyce. —Einav Rabinovitch-Fox / Made By History, TIME, 7 Jan. 2025

What at first seemed like a very rickety version of the cancan suddenly gained new context as the show continued into a grand citywide interpretive dance celebrating the re-construction of the Notre-Dame cathedral. —Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 12 Aug. 2024

The Florence and the Machine aesthetic draws from Pre-Raphaelite tawny goddesses; photos by the 19th-century artist Julia Margaret Cameron; Surrealist 20th-century paintings by Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo; the modern dancer Loie Fuller; exhausted cancan dancers; pastel moths. —Lauren Groff, New York Times, 17 Oct. 2024

The joy of those cancan dancers in pink, or Lady Gaga shimmying in ostrich feathers and a Dior feather hat, was a valiant tribute to French tradition. —Rachel Tashjian, Washington Post, 26 July 2024

And yes, fashion is a national treasure in France, so the Opening Ceremonies’ whimsical displays of the Moulin Rouge women in pink dancing the cancan, or the exuberant (if aesthetically tacky) runway show were, yes, charming. —Rachel Tashjian, Washington Post, 26 July 2024

Word History

Etymology

French

First Known Use

1830, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for cancan

• afghan
• bedpan
• began
• caveman
• chapin
• crankpin
• cyan
• deadpan
• dextran
• divan
• doorman
• fishman