Dance vs. Dancing - What's the difference?

1. Alternative forms

• daunce (obsolete)

2. Etymology

From Middle English dauncen, daunsen, a borrowing from Anglo-Norman dauncer, dancer (“to dance”) (compare Old French dancier), from Frankish *dansōn (“to draw, pull, stretch out, gesture”) (compare Old High German dansōn (“to draw, pull”)), from Proto-Germanic *þansōną, from *þinsaną (“to draw, pull”). More at thin.

3. Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dæns/
  • (US, Canada) IPA^(key): [dɛəns~deəns]
  • (Northern England, Ireland) IPA^(key): [dæns~dans]
• IPA^(key): /dɑːns/
  • (Received Pronunciation, Cockney) IPA^(key): [dɑːns]
• Rhymes: -ɑːns, -æns

4. Noun

dance (countable and uncountable, plural dances)

1. A sequence of rhythmic steps or movements usually performed to music, for pleasure or as a form of social interaction.

   • "I ought to arise and go forth with timbrels and with dances; but, do you know, I am not inclined to revels? There has been a little—just a very little bit too much festivity so far …. Not that I don't adore dinners and gossip and dances; not that I do not love to pervade bright and glittering places. […]"

2. A social gathering where dancing is the main activity.

   • "I ought to arise and go forth with timbrels and with dances; but, do you know, I am not inclined to revels? There has been a little—just a very little bit too much festivity so far …. Not that I don't adore dinners and gossip and dances; not that I do not love to pervade bright and glittering places. […]"

3. (heraldry) A normally horizontal stripe called a fess that has been modified to zig-zag across the center of a coat of arms from dexter to sinister.
4. A genre of modern music characterised by sampled beats, repetitive rhythms and few lyrics.
5. (uncountable) The art, profession, and study of dancing.
6. A piece of music with a particular dance rhythm.

   • They stayed together during three dances, went out on to the terrace, explored wherever they were permitted to explore, paid two visits to the buffet, and enjoyed themselves much in the same way as if they had been school-children surreptitiously breaking loose from an assembly of grown-ups.

4.1. Hyponyms

• See also Thesaurus:dance

5. Verb

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

1. (intransitive) To move with rhythmic steps or movements, especially in time to music.

2. (intransitive) To leap or move lightly and rapidly.
   • Byron

     Shadows in the glassy waters dance.

3. (transitive) To perform the steps to.

4. (transitive) To cause to dance, or move nimbly or merrily about.
   • William Shakespeare

     to dance our ringlets to the whistling wind

   • William Shakespeare

     Thy grandsire loved thee well; / Many a time he danced thee on his knee.

5.1. Synonyms

• throw shapes

5.2. Derived terms

• dance attendance
• dancer
• dance with the one that brought you
• dirty dance
• line dance

5.3. Descendants

• → Scottish Gaelic: danns
• → Zulu: dansa

6. See also

• Appendix:Dances

7. Further reading

• Dance on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• dance on Wikibooks.Wikibooks

8. Anagrams

• Caden, acned, caned, decan

1. Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈdɑːn.sɪŋ/, /ˈdæn.sɪŋ/
• Rhymes: -ɑːnsɪŋ, -ænsɪŋ

2. Noun

dancing (countable and uncountable, plural dancings)

1. The activity of taking part in a dance.
2. (historical) A dance club in France.
   • 2001, William A. Shack, Harlem in Montmartre: A Paris Jazz Story Between the Great Wars

     New dancings pervaded the length and breadth of Montmartre in order to suit the taste of foreign patrons.

   • 2003, Jeffrey H. Jackson, Making Jazz French: Music and Modern Life in Interwar Paris (page 44)

     Different dancings also attracted different crowds. Indeed, the diversity of dancers throughout the city makes drawing a detailed portrait of them difficult.

3. Verb

dancing

1. present participle of dance