tanka

noun

Definition of tankanext
as in haiku

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of tanka Matsumoto worked with collaborators to translate the book of tanka poems so everyone in her family could read them. — Myrna Petlicki, Chicago Tribune, 16 Apr. 2026 Matsumoto said tanka is the oldest form of traditional Japanese poetry. — Myrna Petlicki, Chicago Tribune, 16 Apr. 2026 Each photo is combined with a tanka (a five-line, 31-syllable poem) written through the lens of a 10-year-old girl encountering the Jews for the first time, composed by poet Hiroko Yamagata. — Josh Hasten, Sun Sentinel, 21 Sep. 2022 Her third and most critically acclaimed film, Forever a Woman (1955), is a tender, yearning portrait of a tanka poet with breast cancer and one of the first films anywhere to show a mastectomy. — Lisa Wong MacAbasco, Vogue, 18 Mar. 2022 His haiku and tanka translations influenced Pound, Rexroth, and others. — Jonathan Dee, The New Yorker, 9 Sep. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tanka
  1. haiku
  2. senryu
  3. sonnet
Noun
  • Her father, a haiku poet, could trace their roots in the village back for 36 generations.
    — Leslie Camhi, Vogue, 15 Sep. 2026
  • Yamanaka is made for leisurely walks, a visit to the house celebrating the haiku poet Bashō—who stayed here for nine days in 1689—and quiet days in a world of green hills and rushing water.
    — Pico Iyer, Condé Nast Traveler, 17 Aug. 2026
Definition of haiku
Noun
  • The construction is the same -- three lines, 17 syllables, with five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line and five syllables on the third line -- but the tone and subject matter of a senryu is different.
    — Mary Colurso | [email protected], al, 19 Nov. 2020
  • The event is open to anyone interested in learning about the modern haiku, senryu and haibun types of poetry, focusing on contemporary free verse forms, not the familiar five-seven-five-syllable structure.
    — Carole Goldberg, courant.com, 7 Aug. 2019
Definition of senryu
Noun
  • People can and should be skeptical about the sonnets written about starting NFL quarterbacks every offseason, when no one is getting sacked and almost everyone looks good.
    — Scott Fowler, Charlotte Observer, 30 July 2026
  • The conventions ground the writing as meter and rhyme steady a sonnet.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 13 July 2026
Definition of sonnet

Browse Nearby Words

tank
tanka
tankard
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Cite this Entry

“Tanka.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tanka. Accessed 4 Oct. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on tanka

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about tanka

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