villanelle
noun
vil·la·nelle
ˌvi-lə-ˈnel 
: 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
Examples of villanelle in a Sentence
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From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, villanelle was simply the French term for an Italian country song, and during the Renaissance, poets often used the title for their work regardless of a poem’s specific structure.
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The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 19 Aug. 2025
Elongated and paved with bricks, the path is a closed form, a kind of physical villanelle that thwarts the experience of continuity or the feeling of finitude.
—Hamilton Cain, BostonGlobe.com, 2 Mar. 2023
Susan Kinsolving’s villanelle obsessively circles the same two rhymes, keeping pace with the anxiety of a mind trying to cope.
—Clare Bucknell, The New Yorker, 22 Dec. 2020
Her own verse often drew on classical forms such as the villanelle, sestina, tritina and sonnet, and sometimes incorporated references to ancient mythology and medieval legend.
—Harrison Smith, Washington Post, 8 July 2019
But then, rarely does an individual strip contain a complete and proper villanelle about food.
—Wired Blogs, WIRED, 22 Sep. 2006
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The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 19 Aug. 2025
Elongated and paved with bricks, the path is a closed form, a kind of physical villanelle that thwarts the experience of continuity or the feeling of finitude.
—Hamilton Cain, BostonGlobe.com, 2 Mar. 2023
Susan Kinsolving’s villanelle obsessively circles the same two rhymes, keeping pace with the anxiety of a mind trying to cope.
—Clare Bucknell, The New Yorker, 22 Dec. 2020
Her own verse often drew on classical forms such as the villanelle, sestina, tritina and sonnet, and sometimes incorporated references to ancient mythology and medieval legend.
—Harrison Smith, Washington Post, 8 July 2019
But then, rarely does an individual strip contain a complete and proper villanelle about food.
—Wired Blogs, WIRED, 22 Sep. 2006
Cite this Entry
“Villanelle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/villanelle. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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