noun, plural can·tos.
- one of the main or larger divisions of a long poem.
noun plural -tos
- music another word for cantus (def. 2)
- a main division of a long poem
1580s, from Italian canto “song,” from Latin cantus “song” (see chant (v.)). As “a section of a long poem,” used in Italian by Dante, in English first by Spenser.