Meanings
plural cantilenas
- entertainmentA vocal melody or instrumental passage in a smooth, lyrical style.
He played a lazy tune that sinuated from C sharp down to G natural and back again. Astonishing that he could flute so lazy a cantilena while chasing nymphs.
1964, Anthony Burgess, The Eve of St Venus1 more example
The sounds of insects, of which I am seldom conscious unless I have not heard them in some time, resumed, with a noise that reminded me of the tuning of the strings in the Blue Hall before the first cantilena began, a noise I sometimes used to listen to when I lay on my pallet near the open port of the apprentices' dormitory.
1982, Gene Wolfe, chapter 27, in The Sword of the Lictor (The Book of the New Sun; 3), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, pages 203-204
Origin
- Latincantilēna
- Englishcantilena
Borrowed from Italian or Latin cantilēna.
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Spanish cantinela, cantilena
- cantinelaTranslations
- cantilenaTranslations
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
cantilena. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cantilena
“cantilena.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cantilena. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cantilena,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cantilena.
Source: cantilena on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.