Chasse is a feminine noun borrowed from French, most often meaning a pursuit or chase; in sports and dance contexts it can describe a swift, gliding movement or a chase scene. In English usage it appears mainly in French loan phrases or affected stylization, retaining a soft initial fricative and a short, open vowel. The word is pronounced with a crisp final sibilant and a non-stressed or lightly stressed first syllable in many contexts.
"The hunter led the chasse through the forest, keeping to cover before the final pursuit."
"In ballet terminology, a chasse is a sliding step executed in sequence."
"The chef plated the dish with a delicate chasse of herbs around the sauce."
"On the film set, the scene included a rapid chasse across the courtyard, ending in a graceful turn."
Chasse comes from the French chasse, which itself derives from the Old French chasser meaning to chase or hunt, related to the Latin catīnāre “to chase.” The term entered English via French culinary, artistic, and hunting vocabularies during the late Middle Ages, but it gained specialized traction in dance (as in ballet chasse) and in hunting or gamekeeping parlance. In French, chasse originally described pursuit or hunting and later extended to various figurative uses (pursuit of a quarry, a type of move, or a chase. In English, the word retained a distinct French pronunciation but often appears italicized or anglicized in modern texts. The first known English usage dates from the 16th to 17th centuries as French borrowings proliferated in aristocratic and cultural contexts. The term has since maintained a relatively narrow semantic field, especially in dance and sport contexts, while occasionally surfacing in gastronomy and literature as a stylized reference to pursuit or movement.
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "Chasse" and can often be used interchangeably.
🔄 These words have opposite meanings to "Chasse" and show contrast in usage.
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Words that rhyme with "Chasse"
-sse sounds
-ass sounds
Practice with these rhyming pairs to improve your pronunciation consistency:
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Pronounce it as /ʃæs/ with a voiceless post-alveolar fricative /ʃ/ as in 'ship', followed by a short /æ/ like in 'cat', and a crisp final /s/. The stress sits naturally on the monosyllable or on the word’s role in a phrase. If saying in French-influenced contexts, keep the /ʃ/ and ensure the vowel is short and clipped, not drawn out; you’ll hear the word sound breezy and precise. Audio references: you can check pronunciation samples on Pronounce and Forvo for native ballet instructors and French speakers saying 'chasse'.
Common errors include lengthening the vowel to /eɪ/ or turning /ʃ/ into /sʃ/ and misplacing the final /s/ voice. Another frequent issue is adding an extra syllable or over-enunciating the s, making it 'chasseh'. To correct: keep the vowel short like /æ/, end with a crisp /s/, and avoid intruding a vowel between /ʃ/ and /æ/. Practice by saying /ʃæs/ in single beats, then in 2-beat phrases to maintain the stingy, clean final s.
Across US, UK, and AU, /ʃæs/ remains the same core sounds, but rhotic handling and vowel length can influence perceived quality. US speakers may have a slightly flatter /æ/ and crisper /s/, UK speakers might sound a tad tighter with a quicker transition into /s/, and Australian speakers often show a broader, more centralized /æ/ with softer /s/. The main differences are subtle: vowel height and duration, not the consonant identity. Listen to ballet vocabulary sources with regional speakers to hear the small shifts.
The challenge lies in the short, tense /æ/ vowel in rapid speech and ensuring the /ʃ/ remains smooth and not contaminated by neighboring vowels. It also requires producing a clean, voiceless /s/ ending without a following voiced sound. For non-native speakers, the French origin adds a layer of flavor that may tempt you to lengthen or soften the vowel. Focus on a compact mouth position: lips neutral, tip of the tongue behind the upper teeth for /ʃ/, and release into a crisp /s/.
In this word, the e is silent in English pronunciation; you pronounce /ʃæs/ with a short, clipped vowel and final /s/. The French spelling might suggest an e, but the common English usage collapses it to the /s/ ending. In careful, French-influenced contexts, you may hear a light, barely audible vowel cue, but standard practice is to omit it and avoid an extra syllable.
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