noun · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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UK:/beɪˈɡiːn/
US:/bəˈɡiːn/
rhymes with -iːn
/beɪˈɡiːn/
1
noun
Meaning 1
A ballroom dance, similar to a slow rumba, originally from French West Indies and popularized abroad largely through the song "Begin the Beguine"; the music for the dance.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
1956, Langston Hughes, I Wonder as I Wander, 2003, Arnold Rampersad, Dolan Hubbard (editors), The Collected Works of Langston Hughes, Volume 14: Autobiography, page 69, It was a haunting kind of beguine with a strange sad lyric about slavery and freedom set against insistent drums and voluptuous maracas:
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
A member of a semimonastic Christian lay religious order active in Northern Europe, particularly in the Low Countries in the 13th–16th centuries.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: historical
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
a ballroom dance that originated in the French West Indies; similar to the rumba
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: ballroom dancing, ballroom dance
4
noun
Meaning 4
music written in the bolero rhythm of the beguine dance
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: dance music
5
noun
Meaning 5
(Roman Catholic Church) a member of a lay sisterhood (one of several founded in the Netherlands in the 12th and 13th centuries); though not taking religious vows the sisters followed an austere life
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: sister
History
Etymology
From American French béguine, from French béguin.
From Old French béguine.
Across languages
Translations
28 source translations are retained for this English entry.
