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• cento
  cento

  noun

  a piece of writing, especially a poem, composed wholly of quotations from the works of other authors.
• CENTO
  CENTO

  noun

  a former organization (1959–79) for economic and military cooperation, established as successor to the Baghdad Pact, and comprising Great Britain, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey. The U.S. had affiliate status.

cento

¹ American  

[sen-toh] / ˈsɛn toʊ /

noun

centos plural

1. a piece of writing, especially a poem, composed wholly of quotations from the works of other authors.

2. anything composed of incongruous parts; conglomeration.

3. Obsolete. a patchwork.

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CENTO ² American  

[sen-toh] / ˈsɛn toʊ /

noun

1. a former organization (1959–79) for economic and military cooperation, established as successor to the Baghdad Pact, and comprising Great Britain, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey. The U.S. had affiliate status.

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CENTO ¹ British  

/ ˈsɛntəʊ /

acronym

1. Central Treaty Organization; an organization for military and economic cooperation formed in 1959 by the UK, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey as a successor to the Baghdad Pact: disbanded 1979

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cento ² British  

/ ˈsɛntəʊ /

noun

1. a piece of writing, esp a poem, composed of quotations from other authors

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• centonism
  noun
• centonical
  adjective
• centonization
  noun

Inflected Forms

noun

• centos
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cento¹

First recorded in 1595–1605, cento is from the Latin word centō patchwork quilt or curtain

Origin of CENTO²

Cen(tral) T(reaty) O(rganization)

Example Sentences

Author’s Note: A cento, from the Latin for “patchwork,” is a collage poem composed of lines from other sources.

From Scientific American • Feb. 4, 2023

While reading a cento, one savored its imaginative repurposing of bits from Horace, Virgil and any number of lesser ancients.

From Washington Post • Dec. 27, 2017

If not, it should, for Robert Irwin’s ingenious historical fantasy “Wonders Will Never Cease” is a contemporary novelist’s version of the poetic form known as a cento.

From Washington Post • Dec. 27, 2017

A heavy quattro cento table covered with papers ran across one side, and on the other was a grand piano.

From Shadows of Flames A Novel by Rives, Amélie

They are lightly traced in much of the cinque cento sculpture; very boldly and grandly in the strange Last Judgment in the porch of St. Maclou at Rouen, described in the “Seven Lamps.”

From The Stones of Venice, Volume I (of 3) by Ruskin, John