canto

From Italian canto (“song”). Doublet of chant.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkæntəʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkæntoʊ/
• Rhymes: -æntəʊ

canto (plural cantos)

2. One of the chief divisions of a long poem; a book.
4. (music) The treble or leading melody.
6. (music) The designated division of a song.

• canto fermo

• Acton, Caton, act on, acton, octan

canto

1. first-person singular present indicative of cantar

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈkan.tu]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [ˈkan.to]

canto

1. first-person singular present indicative of cantar

• IPA^(key): /ˈkanto̝/

From Old Galician-Portuguese canto, from Latin cantus.

canto m (uncountable)

1. singing
2. hymn, song

canto

1. first-person singular present indicative of cantar

From Old Galician-Portuguese canto (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria); from Paleo-Hispanic and having a probable Celtic origin.^[1]

canto m (plural cantos)

1. middle or small sized stone

   Synonym: callao

   • 1370, R. Lorenzo, editor, Crónica troiana, A Coruña: Fundación Barrié, page 605:

     [Et] poserõ perlos muros beesteyros et arque[yro]s muytos et outros, pera deytar quantos et paos agudos metudos en ferros, en guisa que os que se quisesem chegar ao muro nõ podesem escapar de morte

     And they arranged many crossbowmen and bowmen on the walls, an others to throw stones and sharp sticks inserted in irons, so as the ones who wanted to come near the wall could not escape death

Documented already in Latin as canthus (“metal tire”), voice that was interpreted as Hispanic or African by Quintilian; in that case, from a hypothetical Proto-Celtic *kantos (compare Welsh cant (“rim”)).^[2] Otherwise Latin canthus could perhaps come from Ancient Greek κανθός (kanthós, “corner of the eye”).^[3]

canto m (plural cantos)

1. rim of a round object

   Synonym: bordo

2. extreme of a place or of a field
3. very small field
4. corner

   Synonym: recanto

canto m (feminine singular canta, masculine plural cantos, feminine plural cantas)

1. (interrogative) how much

   E sabedes canto tempo tardaron na elecsón?

   And do you know how long they took in the election?

• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “canto”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “canto”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “canto”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “canto”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “canto”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

canto (plural cantos)

1. song

Inherited from Latin cantus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkan.to/
• Rhymes: -anto
• Hyphenation: càn‧to

canto m (plural canti)

1. song
2. singing
3. poetic composition
4. part of a poem (e.g. the Divine Comedy); canto

• → English: canto, bel canto
• → Polish: canto
• → Romanian: canto
• → Turkish: kanto

Inherited from Latin canthus, from Ancient Greek κανθός (kanthós), meaning corner, specifically the corner of the eye. Or from a Vulgar Latin *cantus, a word of Mediterranean origin akin to the aforementioned Greek term^[1]

canto m (plural canti)

1. corner
2. side

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

canto

1. first-person singular present indicative of cantare

• Caton, conta

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkan.toː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkan.to]

From canō (“sing”) +‎ -tō (frequentative suffix). See cantus.

cantō (present infinitive cantāre, perfect active cantāvī, supine cantātum); first conjugation

1. synonym of canō (“to sing, recite, play, foretell”)
2. (also) to enchant, or call forth by charms, chant

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

cantō

1. dative/ablative masculine/neuter singular of cantus

• “canto”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “canto”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "canto", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “canto”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• canto in Ramminger, Johann (16 July 2016 (last accessed)), Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[3], pre-publication website, 2005-2016

Unadapted borrowing from Italian canto, from Latin cantus. Doublet of szanta.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkan.tɔ/
• Rhymes: -antɔ
• Syllabification: can‧to

canto n (indeclinable)

1. (music) canto (the designated division of a song)
2. (music) canto (the treble or leading melody)

• “canto”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[4] (in Polish)

• Audio (Brazil (Caipira)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɐ̃tu
• Hyphenation: can‧to

From Old Galician-Portuguese canto, from Latin cantus (“song; singing”), perfect passive participle of canō (“to sing”), from Proto-Indo-European *kan- (“to sing”). Cognate of English chant.

canto m (plural cantos)

1. singing (the act of using the voice to produce musical sounds)

   Synonym: cantoria

2. chant
3. a bird’s song

   Synonym: canção

4. (figurative) any pleasant sound
5. (poetry) canto

From Latin canthus or Vulgar Latin *cantus, from Ancient Greek κανθός (kanthós, “corner of the eye”).

canto m (plural cantos)

1. corner (space in the angle between converging lines or surfaces)

   Synonyms: ângulo, esquina, quina

   Os quatro cantos do mundo ― The four corners of the world

2. a remote location

   Synonyms: recanto, retiro

3. an undetermined or unknown location
4. (sports) the corner of the goal line and touchline
   1. (soccer) corner (a corner kick)

      Synonym: pontapé de canto

6. (architecture) type of stone used in the corners of a building

• por todo canto

• canteiro

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

canto

1. first-person singular present indicative of cantar

• “canto”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “canto”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Borrowed from Italian canto.

canto n (uncountable)

1. canto

• IPA^(key): /ˈkanto/ [ˈkãn̪.t̪o]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -anto
• Syllabification: can‧to

Inherited from Latin cantus.

canto m (plural cantos)

1. singing
2. song
3. chant

Inherited from Latin canthus (“metal rim of a wheel”), from Ancient Greek κανθός (kanthós), or from a Vulgar Latin cantus, of ultimately the same origin, or less likely Celtic origin, from Gaulish *cantos, from Proto-Celtic *kantos (“corner”), from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂ndʰ-.

canto m (plural cantos)

1. edge
2. (Philippines) corner, especially the intersection of two streets
3. side
4. (rare) thickness
5. a piece of stone
6. (anatomy) canthus

• → Cebuano: kanto
• → Tagalog: kanto

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

canto

1. first-person singular present indicative of cantar

• “canto”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025