Standard Lemma guide

sestina

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A highly structured poem consisting of six six-line stanzas followed by a tercet or envoy, for a total of thirty-nine lines.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: communications, journalism, literature, media, poetry, publishing, writing

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A chord comprising the first six members of the harmonic series.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: entertainment, lifestyle, music

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Italian sestina. Doublet of sextain.

Across languages

Translations

21 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: sextina — A highly structured poem
  • Czech: sestina — A highly structured poem
  • Estonian: sekstiin — A highly structured poem
  • Finnish: sestiini — A highly structured poem
  • French: sextine — A highly structured poem
  • Friulian: sestine — A highly structured poem
  • Georgian: სექსტინა (seksṭina) — A highly structured poem
  • German: Sestine — A highly structured poem
  • Greek: σεστίνα (sestína) — A highly structured poem
  • Hungarian: sestina — A highly structured poem
  • Hungarian: szesztina — A highly structured poem
  • Italian: sestina — A highly structured poem
  • Polish: sestyna — A highly structured poem
  • Polish: sekstyna — A highly structured poem
  • Portuguese: sextina — A highly structured poem
  • Romanian: sextină — A highly structured poem
  • Russian: сексти́на (sekstína) — A highly structured poem
  • Slovak: sestína — A highly structured poem
  • Slovene: sekstina — A highly structured poem
  • Spanish: sextina — A highly structured poem
  • Swedish: sestin — A highly structured poem