canto
Americannoun
-
cantos
plural
noun
-
music another word for cantus
-
a main division of a long poem
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of canto
1580–90; < Italian < Latin cant ( us ) singing, song, equivalent to can ( ere ) to sing + -tus suffix of v. action; cf. cant 1, chant
Explanation
Long books have chapters. Long poems do, too. But a chapter in a long poem is called a canto. There are several famous poems that are divided into cantos, including Dante's Divine Comedy, Spenser's The Faerie Queene, and Byron's Don Juan. Canto is an Italian word coming from Latin which means song or singing. From Italian it was borrowed in English to mean a section of a poem.
Vocabulary lists containing canto
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Poetry: Structure and Meter
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Reading: Literature - Poetry - High School
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The choral writing, in Sardinian dialect, reflects the traditional canto a tenore, giving it an earthy, ritualistic flavor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
The score calls for a large cast with serious bel canto skills, and Opera Philadelphia’s lineup delivered.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2025
Born Maria Anna Sophie Cecilia Kalogeropoulos in New York in December 1923 to Greek parents, Callas was credited with the almost single-handed revival of the Italian bel canto vocal technique.
From Reuters ● Oct. 25, 2023
The house said Scappucci will be involved in works by Verdi and Puccini along with bel canto.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 5, 2023
Penelope could tell this by the way the children hung on her every word and demanded “More, more!” each time she reached the end of a canto and tried to stop.
From "The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling" by Maryrose Wood
Sereni, who recited cantos from Dante in Italian to calm his nerves, was offered a British alias for the parachuting mission.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026
Michael, the default English department heartthrob who satisfies his artistic longings by publishing book-long cantos, isn’t fated for such greatness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2024
It is a revelatory journey but an arduous one, spanning 100 cantos and nearly 15,000 lines replete with references to the Florentine political scene, Christian theology and the world of antiquity.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 17, 2021
The show convenes a suite of drawings employing that technique, made between 1958 and 1960: putative illustrations of the thirty-four cantos of Dante’s Inferno.
From The New Yorker ● May 22, 2017
Ged sang aloud the Winter Carol, and such cantos of the Deed of the Young King as he remembered, for those songs are sung at the Festival of Sunreturn.
From "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
