cantilena

[kan-tl-ee-nuh]

noun

a simple, lyric, melodic passage for voice or instrument.

Origin of cantilena

1730–40; < Italian < Latin cantilēna refrain, perhaps by dissimilation from *cantilēla, derivative of cantus song; see cant¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for cantilena

Historical Examples of cantilena

At the first cantilena on the strings I nearly jumped out of my seat.
Contemporary American Composers
Rupert Hughes
A man can sing a 'cantilena' in the fields, but in church it is the women who sing.
Corleone
F. Marion Crawford
The second movement in six-eight rhythm, is another specimen of the Italian Cantilena.
Nicolo Paganini: His Life and Work
Stephen Samuel Stratton
The cantabile slow movement, modeled somewhat after the Italian cantilena, was his.
A Popular History of the Art of Music
W. S. B. Mathews
A similar freely riming poem in lines of seven syllables is Villegas' Cantilena (p. 17).
Modern Spanish Lyrics
Various

British Dictionary definitions for cantilena

cantilena

noun

a smooth flowing style in the writing of vocal music

Word Origin for cantilena

C18: Italian, from Latin cantilēna a song

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