cantabile

[ kahn-tah-bi-ley, -bee-, kuh n-; Italian kahn-tah-bee-le ]

/ kɑnˈtɑ bɪˌleɪ, -bi-, kən-; Italian kɑnˈtɑ biˌlɛ /

Music.

adjective

songlike and flowing in style.

adverb

in a cantabile manner.

Nearby words

cant frame, cant hook, cant strip, cant., cantab., cantabile, cantabrian mountains, cantabrigian, cantal, cantala, cantalever

Origin of cantabile

1720–30; < Italian < Late Latin cantābilis worth singing, equivalent to Latin cantā(re) to sing (see cant¹) + -bilis -ble

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for cantabile

In this key there follows a long-breathed, cantabile melody—at first for strings alone, but scored with increasing richness.
Music: An Art and a Language|Walter Raymond Spalding
The portamento being an embellishment that pertains to the cantabile, it is very little used in declamatory singing.
Style in Singing|W. E. Haslam
Fioritura means embroidery, while cantabile means "song-like."
Chopin and Other Musical Essays|Henry T. Finck
The brilliancy of the theme and the uncommon beauty of the cantabile took the audience by surprise.
Ole Bull|Sara C. Bull

For postlude two measures from the cantabile of Chopin's "Funeral March" are used with droll effect.
Contemporary American Composers|Rupert Hughes

British Dictionary definitions for cantabile

cantabile

/ (kænˈtɑːbɪlɪ) music /

adjective, adverb

(to be performed) in a singing style, i.e. flowingly and melodiously

noun

a piece or passage performed in this way

Word Origin for cantabile

Italian, from Late Latin cantābilis, from Latin cantāre to sing

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012