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

Word Origin and History for cantabile

cantabile

adj.

1724, from Italian, literally "singable, that can be sung," from cantare "to sing" (see chant (v.)).