cento
noun
a piece of writing, especially a poem, composed wholly of quotations from the works of other authors.
Showing results for cento.
Search instead for
cesto.
cento
1 American
[sen-toh]
/ ˈsɛn toʊ /
noun
-
centos
plural
-
a piece of writing, especially a poem, composed wholly of quotations from the works of other authors.
-
anything composed of incongruous parts; conglomeration.
-
Obsolete. a patchwork.
CENTO
2
American
[sen-toh]
/ ˈsɛn toʊ /
noun
CENTO
1
British
/ ˈsɛntəʊ /
acronym
cento
2
British
/ ˈsɛntəʊ /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
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
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
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
No matter that it is necessary even here to make a cento, that the untutored singer cannot keep up the song by natural force and has not skill enough to dissemble the lapses.
From Essays in English Literature, 1780-1860 by George Saintsbury
Sifting and pruning are needed before a cento can be formed which would commend itself to modern taste.
From Hymns of the Greek Church Translated with Introduction and Notes by John Brownlie
Close ties were knit with Turkey and Iran, two Moslem neighbors and fellow members of CENTO.
From Time Magazine Archive
So, in the geopolitics of the '70s, China ranks as a sort of honorary member of CENTO.
From Time Magazine Archive
Says Zia: "CENTO is becoming a hindrance to Pakistan's security."
From Time Magazine Archive
These factors have all served to erode any feeling of collective security in CENTO.
From Time Magazine Archive
CENTO, a town of Emilia, Italy, in the province of Ferrara, 18 m.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 6 "Celtes, Konrad" to "Ceramics" by Various
And so, I wanted to do what I could to discourage people from doing that and that's where the centos come in.
From Salon ● Mar. 5, 2019
And prudence can justly be desired in those who have collected these centos of the "Sentences" and decrees.
From Apology of the Augsburg Confession by Philipp Melanchthon
The old themes and verses aimed at producing decorous centos culled from the works of classical rhetoricians and poets.
From Cambridge Essays on Education by Various
He was no mere lawyer: no stringer of professional centos.
From The International Monthly Magazine - Volume V - No II by Various
The temptation to father their own verses, or centos which they pieced together from sources known only to themselves, upon some poet of antiquity was all the stronger because they ran little risk of detection.
From A Literary History of the Arabs by Reynold Nicholson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
