Almeh (properly alimeh, pi. avalim.) an Arabic name given to the better class of public singers and dancers in Egypt, and sometimes erroneously applied also to the lower prostitutes and dancers, the ghawazi. The almehs form a separate social class, live together in companies, and often earn very large sums by their songs, dances, and improvisations, which are almost always of a lascivious character. Their services are generally called into requisition at banquets, marriages, and other festivals. - The ghawazi are a much lower class, including both male and female dancers, who travel from place to place, and exhibit in the public streets their dances, which, like those of the almehs, consist of lascivious movements of the body. The female ghawazi are prostitutes of the lowest class; yet a respectable Arab may without disgrace marry one of them who has abandoned her profession. Though the two classes are alike in the licentiousness of their lives and occupations, a sharp distinction exists between the almehs and the ghawazi, the former pandering to the higher orders of society, while the latter (considered by many actually a distinct race of gypsies) address themselves to the populace.