Sauts

Sauts is the French plural noun for jumps or leaps, with the singular form saut. Etymology traces back to Old French saut, from Latin saltus meaning leap or jump. In modern French, the word covers a range of jumping movements and is used across several domains.

In sports, sauts denotes jumping events within athletics. Common examples include saut en hauteur (high jump), saut en longueur (long jump), and triple saut (triple jump). Saut à la perche refers to pole vault. The term can also describe the broader category of jumping activities in training or competition, and appears in phrases related to show jumping or obstacle jumping in equestrian contexts (saut d’obstacle).

In dance, sauts designates leaps performed by dancers. These can range from classical ballet jumps like grand jeté and saut de chat to other repertoire-specific leaps in contemporary dance. The exact technique names and styles vary by tradition, but the general idea remains a spatial leap or elevation from one position to another.

In music theory and linguistic usage, un saut can describe a melodic leap between nonadjacent notes, as opposed to a step. The concept of a jump or leap also appears in figurative phrases, such as quantum leap (saut quantique) in physics or other contexts describing abrupt progress.

Beyond these uses, sauts may appear in proper nouns, including place names or surnames in French-speaking regions. These instances are independent of the general sense of jumping.