canto

[Italian, from Latin cantus, song. See canticle.]

(It., Sp.)

Term for singing, the topmost part in a polyphonic work, a melody, a song or (sometimes ‘cantino’) the uppermost string of a bowed or plucked instrument.

canto, a subdivision of an epic or other narrative poem, equivalent to a chapter in a prose work.

A major division of a long or extended poem. A canto of a poem corresponds to a chapter of a novel.

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