divertissement (Fr.). Amusement. The same as divertimento, with the additional meaning of an entertainment of dances and songs inserted in an 18th-cent. stage spectacle or sometimes in a ballet or opera (as in Gounod's Faust or Delibes's Coppélia). The term is also applied to a suite of dances unconnected by a story. Ibert's Divertissement is an orch. work derived from mus. for the film The Italian Straw Hat.

di·ver·tisse·ment / diˈvərtismənt/ • n. a minor entertainment or diversion: as a Sunday divertissement Wittgenstein would play Schubert quartets. ∎  Ballet a short dance within a ballet that displays a dancer's technical skill without advancing the plot or character development.