Villanelle
//vɪləˈnɛl// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A type of poem, consisting of five tercets and one quatrain, with only two rhymes.
"By definition the villanelle is restrictive, because it demands nineteen lines on two rhymes in six stanzas, the first and third lines of the opening tercet recurring alternately at the end of the concluding quatrain."
Example
More examples"My goal is to write a villanelle and unclog my right ear."
Etymology
From the French villanelle, from Italian villanella, from villano (“peasant”), from Latin vīllānus (“farmhand”), from vīlla (“estate”). The origin references the pastoral themes originally associated with this form.
More for "villanelle"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.