French for "beat", and often referred to simply as beat in English as well.

Battement in fencing terms refers to attacking your opponent's weapon to remove it from the line it is currently positioned in. This should be done by contacting the upper third of your opponent's blade with the upper third of your own - almost, but not quite, tip to tip. In addition to altering your opponent's line of attack or defense, it also earns you right of way if you are fencing sabre or foil.

In ballet, "battement" is a generic term for a movement in which one leg is extended and then brought back. Used by itself, in the lessons I took the term meant raising the leg straight out in front of you, to one side, or in back of you at a right angle to the leg you were standing on (also known as a grand battement, "big beat") while, say , a "battement tendu" was just referred to as a tendu and a "battement frappé" was just a frappé.

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