canto means one of the chief divisions of a long poem; a book. It carries an Arena rating of 1720, earned across 72 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, canto ranks #371 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #1,082 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #2,068 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,785 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
canto is pronounced /ˈkæntəʊ/.
Why “canto” is a great word
CANTO — [Noun] A principal section or division of a long narrative or epic poem. From Italian canto ("song"), from Latin cantus ("song, singing"), from canere ("to sing"), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kan- ("to sing"). Unlike "verse" (which denotes a single metrical line or stanza) or "chapter" (which segments prose into narrative blocks), a canto is the epic's architectural unit of song. It is Dante's measured descent into a new circle of Hell, Spenser's discrete allegorical landscape for a questing knight, and Byron's self-contained satirical episode—each a sovereign movement within a grand vocal score, reminding us that the longest poetic journey proceeds one resonant song at a time.
Etymology
From Italian canto (“song”). Doublet of chant.
noun
- One of the chief divisions of a long poem; a book.
- The treble or leading melody.
- The designated division of a song.
- The Cantonese language.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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