Ballet is French, and the silent t at the end proves it. French stopped pronouncing most final consonants centuries ago, and English borrowings from that period keep the letter without the sound: ballet, buffet, debut, gourmet, depot. Compare a word borrowed earlier, when French still said its endings, and you find English saying them too. The silent final consonant is one of the most reliable date stamps in English spelling.
The word came in the 1660s from French ballette, itself from Italian balletto, a diminutive of ballo, "a dance." Behind that is Late Latin ballare, "to dance," and behind that Greek ballizein, "to dance, to jump about." So a ballet is etymologically a little dance, which undersells it, and the word arrives in English carrying the whole chain of the art form's own history — Greek to Latin to Italy to the French court to London.
ballet (n.) "theatrical, costumed dance and pantomime performance telling a story and representing characters and passions by gestures and groupings," 1660s, from French ballette from Italian balletto , diminutive of ballo "a dance," from Late Latin ballare "to dance," from Greek ballizein "to dance, jump about" (see ball (n.2)). also from 1660s
ballet came in through Later and wider borrowings, and its spelling follows that family's conventions.
How that family writes these sounds
| a final stressed syllable that just stops | Modern French: write the consonant you can't hear, usually -tballet, gourmet, debut |
What gives it away on the page
| -eau, -oir/-oire, ch said as /ʃ/, silent final consonant | Modern French — borrowed after French itself stopped pronouncing final consonants.bureau, memoir, machine, chef, ballet, debut, gourmet |
Placing it without the spelling
| the stress on the last syllable, and the word simply stops there | Modern Frenchballet, debut, gourmet |
Later and wider borrowings in the spelling guide · guess another word's family