canto

[kan-toh]

noun, plural can·tos.

one of the main or larger divisions of a long poem.

Origin of canto

1580–90; < Italian < Latin cant(us) singing, song, equivalent to can(ere) to sing + -tus suffix of v. action; cf. cant¹, chant

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

Examples from the Web for canto

Historical Examples of canto

And with much force and animation she read them bits from the first canto.
We Two
Edna Lyall
In the mouth, nevertheless, of the fiend Astarotte, canto xxv.
The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy
Jacob Burckhardt
What insight into the life of the clansmen is furnished in this canto?
Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Literature
Ontario Ministry of Education
Four lines at the end of this canto are among the most famous in the poem.
Dante: His Times and His Work
Arthur John Butler
With these losses, the canto still contains 130 stanzas, or 526 lines.
Raleigh
Edmund Gosse

British Dictionary definitions for canto

canto

noun plural -tos

music another word for cantus (def. 2)
a main division of a long poem

Word Origin for canto

C16: from Italian: song, from Latin cantus, from canere 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 canto

1580s, from Italian canto "song," from Latin cantus "song" (see chant (v.)). As "a section of a long poem," used in Italian by Dante, in English first by Spenser.