cantabile

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

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

Music.

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adjective

songlike and flowing in style.

adverb

in a cantabile manner.

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Origin of cantabile

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

Words nearby cantabile

Canso, canst, cant, Cantab., can't abide, cantabile, Cantabrian Mountains, Cantabrigian, Cantal, cantala, cantalever

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use cantabile in a sentence

She has a very excellent violin, a Stradivari, and in the cantabile draws from it a tolerable tone; but that is her only merit.
Louis Spohr's Autobiography|Louis Spohr
This 10-syllable measure is cantabile, and its phrases are too short and too regular to make good recitative verse.
Modern Spanish Lyrics|Various
The finished beauty of the violin 'voice' is a round, sustained, absolutely smooth cantabile tone.
Violin Mastery|Frederick H. Martens
In the two latter songs the simple Cantabile is embellished by bravura passages, which are wanting altogether in the first.
Life Of Mozart, Vol. 1 (of 3)|Otto Jahn

The Adagio cantabile is one of the purest examples of a style of music which has become a thing of the past.
The Pianoforte Sonata|J.S. Shedlock

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