Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive & intransitive verb To chant or recite (a liturgical text) in a musical monotone.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To chant, intone, or recite in a half-singing style, as in Jewish synagogues. Also spelled
cantilate .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To chant; to recite with musical tones.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To
chant , or torecite musically (especially in a synagogue)
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb recite with musical intonation; recite as a chant or a psalm
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Does Mr. ARNOLD BENNETT cantillate his "copy" into the horn of a graphophone or use a motor-stylus?
Punch or the London Charivari, Volume 158, March 24, 1920. Various
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(See mele beginning _Ko'i maka nui_, p. 228.) _Ko'i honua_ (ko'i ho-nú-a) -- a compound of the causative _ko_, _i_, to utter, and _honua_, the earth; to recite or cantillate in a quiet distinct tone, in distinction from the stilted bombastic manner termed ai-ha'a (p. 58).
Unwritten Literature of Hawaii The Sacred Songs of the Hula Nathaniel Bright Emerson 1877
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After tea the guests cantillate passages from the prose and poetry of the Great Indian Master to the accompaniment of gongs (the
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, February 18, 1914 Various 1898
knitandpurl commented on the word cantillate
"She cantillated the name as if she either knew a Clarissa or were trying to remember if she did."
"Dayward" by ZZ Packer, in The New Yorker, June 14 & 21, 2010, page 111
July 13, 2010