villanella
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of villanella
1590–1600; < Italian, feminine of villanello rural, rustic, equivalent to villan ( o ) peasant, boor ( see villain) + -ello -ish
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.
The confines of a structure make your brain work in a different way: How do I get this idea across in a sonnet or a villanelle?
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026
For my first experiment, I had the A.I. write a villanelle, a rather difficult poetic form, about the death of a pet gerbil.
From Slate ● Dec. 13, 2022
Elizabeth Bishop’s wrenching villanelle, “One Art,” can be seen this way.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 11, 2020
WH Auden’s villanelle If I could tell you is recalled in the last line, where the gloved hand appears “as though it intends to stay”.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 31, 2017
“Mine have poetic meter. A villanelle, actually,” Beowulf added modestly.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
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.
