The kit violin, dancing master's kit, or kit (Tanzmeistergeige in German), is a stringed musical instrument. It is essentially a very small violin, designed to fit in a pocket — hence its other common name, the pochette (French for small pocket). It was used by dance masters in royal courts and other places of nobility, as well as by street musicians up until around the 18th century. Occasionally, the rebec was used in the same way. Several are called for (as violini piccoli alla francese - small French violins) in Monteverdi's 1607 Orfeo.

The word "kit" likely arose from an abbreviation of the word "pocket" to "-cket" and subsequently "kit";^{[citation needed]} alternatively, it may be a corruption of “cittern” (Gr. κιθάρα). Trichet is said to have described the leather carrying case of the kit as a poche, hence, "The Pocket Violin". Similarly, Mersenne wrote that it was common practice among the kit violin's players (such as traveling minstrels or dance teachers) to carry the violin in a pocket. The term "kit" is believed to first have been used in the first quarter of the 16th century, in England where it was mentioned in Interlude of the Four Elements, c. 1517.