minuet

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A slow, stately pattern dance in 3/4 time for groups of couples, originating in 17th-century France.
• noun The music for this dance.
• noun A movement in 3/4 time that is usually the third, but sometimes the second, of a four-movement symphony or string quartet.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A slow and graceful dance, invented, probably in Poitou, France, about the middle of the seventeenth century. Throughout the eighteenth century it was “he most popular of the more stately and ceremonious dances.
• noun Music for such a dance, or in its rhythm, which is triple and slow.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A slow graceful dance consisting of a coupee, a high step, and a balance.
• noun (Mus.) A tune or air to regulate the movements of the dance so called; a movement in suites, sonatas, symphonies, etc., having the dance form, and commonly in 3-4, sometimes 3-8, measure.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A slow graceful dance consisting of a coupé, a high step, and a balance.
• noun music A tune or air to regulate the movements of the minuet dance: it has the dance form, and is commonly in 3/4, sometimes 3/8, measure.
• noun music A complete short musical composition inspired by and conforming to many formal characteristics of the traditional musical accompaniment to the dance of same name.
• noun music A movement which is part of a longer musical composition such as a suite, sonata, or symphony which is inspired by and conforming to formal characteristics of the dance of same name.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a stately piece of music composed for dancing the minuet; often incorporated into a sonata or suite
• noun a stately court dance in the 17th century