Home › Glossary › Letter F

Foxtrot

Dance
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A smooth partner dance in duple or quadruple time, developed in the early twentieth century and characterised by long walking steps. In poetry, it evokes modern romance, elegance, and social change.

Detailed Definition
The foxtrot emerged in the early twentieth century and became one of the defining ballroom dances of the jazz age. Its combination of slow and quick steps allowed couples to glide smoothly across the floor while adapting to popular music. Poets use the foxtrot to evoke hotels, dance bands, evening dress, urban courtship, and the modernisation of manners. It may represent sophistication and intimacy, but also emotional distance or social performance, especially in poems where polished movement conceals loneliness, ageing, or the fragility of a fashionable world.
Example
Example in poetry:
“They foxtrotted beneath hotel lights, smooth as practised lies” combines elegance with emotional concealment; A poet may use the foxtrot to evoke jazz-age ballrooms, evening dress, and modern courtship; “The city moved in a foxtrot of slow traffic and quick footsteps” adapts its pattern metaphorically; The dance can represent sophistication, intimacy, social performance, or loneliness hidden beneath polished movement.
Additional Notes
The foxtrot can evoke early twentieth-century modernity, hotel ballrooms, dance bands, evening dress, and urban courtship. Its smooth progress across the floor makes it useful as a metaphor for polished social behaviour or a relationship maintained through practised steps. Poets may contrast elegance with emotional distance, ageing, or loneliness. Students should notice references to slow and quick steps, jazz orchestras, gramophones, or public dancing. Related terms include ballroom dance, jazz age, social mask, nostalgia, and modern romance.
Also Known As
Fox-trot Fox trot
Skip to main content