discant

[ noun dis-kant; verb dis-kant ]

noun

Also dis·can·tus [dis-kan-tuhs]. /dɪsˈkæn təs/. Music. a 13th-century polyphonic style with strict mensural meter in all the voice parts, in contrast to the metrically free organum of the period.
descant.

verb (used without object)

descant.

Origin of discant

1400–50; late Middle English <Medieval Latin discanthus;see descant

Other words from discant

dis·cant·er, noun

Words Nearby discant

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use discant in a sentence

Cui accessit Pium diurnarum precum Enchiridion, ex quo pueri toto die cum Deo colloqui discant.
Notes and Queries, Number 189, June 11, 1853 | Various
The women who joined the community at Arles also learned reading and writing (omnes litteras discant).
Woman under Monasticism | Lina Eckenstein
Then the spirit moving her, she began to discant on things past and people vanished.
The Ghost Girl | H. De Vere Stacpoole
The transition from organum to discant was effected about the year 1100.
Music in the History of the Western Church | Edward Dickinson
Res est blanda canor; discant cantare puell—Singing is a charming accomplishment: let girls learn to sing.
Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources | James Wood

British Dictionary definitions for discant

discant

noun(ˈdɪskænt)

a variant of descant (def. 1), descant (def. 3), descant (def. 4)

verb(dɪsˈkænt)

a variant of descant (def. 1), descant (def. 3), descant (def. 4)

Derived forms of discant

discanter, noun

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

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