troupe

See also: Troupe

English

A troupe of entertainers

Etymology

Attested 1825; Unadapted borrowing from French troupe, which see for more. Doublet of troop, and possibly also of thorp and dorp.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɹuːp/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːp
• Homophone: troop

Noun

troupe (plural troupes)

1. A company of, often touring, acrobats, actors, singers or dancers.
   • 2017 June 26, Alexis Petridis, “Glastonbury 2017 verdict: Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Lorde, Stormzy and more”, in The Guardian‎^[1], archived from the original on 12 October 2026:

     Meanwhile, the bills on the main stages skewed towards mainstream pop, with mixed results. Lorde’s Friday evening Other stage appearance was one of the weekend’s highlights. The staging and choreography were fantastic – a giant glass tank on a hydraulic platform, in and around which a troupe of dancers acted out the highs and lows of a teenage party

   • 2020 April 24, Oscar Holland, “How North Korea’s ideology is built on song and dance”, in CNN‎^[2], archived from the original on 14 November 2025:

     Army choirs and troupes perform at some of North Korea's biggest state events.

2. Any group of people working together on a shared activity.

Derived terms

• ballet troupe

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *treb- (0 c, 57 e)

Translations

company of actors, etc.

• Bulgarian: трупа (bg) f (trupa)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 團 / 团 (zh) (tuán)

• Finnish: ryhmä (fi)
• French: troupe (fr) f
• German: Truppe (de) f
• Hungarian: színtársulat (hu), trupp (hu)
• Irish: compántas m
• Japanese: 団 (ja) (だん, dan)
• Māori: whare karioi, tira kaitapere (of actors), tira kanikani (of dancers)
• Portuguese: trupe (pt) f
• Russian: тру́ппа (ru) f (trúppa)
• Spanish: bojiganga f, troupe f
• Swedish: trupp (sv) c
• Yiddish: טרופּע f (trupe)

any group of people

• Finnish: ryhmä (fi)
• German: Truppe (de) f
• Hungarian: csoport (hu)
• Russian: гру́ппа (ru) (grúppa), тру́ппа (ru) f (trúppa)
• Spanish: troupe f
• Swedish: trupp (sv) c

Verb

troupe (third-person singular simple present troupes, present participle trouping, simple past and past participle trouped)

1. (intransitive) To tour with a troupe.

Derived terms

• trouper
• super trouper

Related terms

• trooper

See also

• Appendix:English collective nouns

Anagrams

• Puerto, pouter, tore up, uptore

French

Etymology

Back-formation from troupeau.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʁup/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

Noun

troupe f (plural troupes)

1. troop

Synonyms

• (non-military): bande

Derived terms

• en route mauvaise troupe

Descendants

• → English: troop; troupe
• → Middle Dutch: trop
  • Dutch: troep
    • Afrikaans: troep
• → German: Truppe
  • ⇒ Spanish: tropel
    • → Portuguese: tropel
• → Polish: trupa
• → Romanian: trupă
• → Russian: труппа (truppa)
• → Spanish: tropa
• → Swedish: trupp

Further reading

• “troupe”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Anagrams

• poutre, poutré

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French troupe.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtrup/
• Rhymes: -up

Noun

troupe f (invariable)

1. troupe, company (theatrical)

Anagrams

• putore, reputo, reputò

Spanish

Etymology

Etymology tree

Old French trope, trupe

Middle French trope, troupe

French troupeauder.

French troupeubor.

Spanish troupe

Unadapted borrowing from French troupe.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɾup/ [ˈt̪ɾup]
  • Rhymes: -up
• IPA^(key): /ˈtɾoupe/ [ˈt̪ɾou̯.pe]
  • Rhymes: -oupe

Noun

troupe f (plural troupes)

1. troupe

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Further reading

• “troupe”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025