Main Entry: vil·la·nelle

Pronunciation: \ˌvi-lə-ˈnel\

Function: noun

Etymology: French, from Italian villanella

Date: 1877

: a chiefly French verse form running on two rhymes and consisting typically of five tercets and a quatrain in which the first and third lines of the opening tercet recur alternately at the end of the other tercets and together as the last two lines of the quatrain