descant

/ˈdɛskænt/

descant noun: a lengthy discourse on a subject.

Noun

descant (plural descants)

A lengthy discourse on a subject.
- Upon that simplest of themes how magnificent a descant!1828, Thomas De Quincey, “Elements of Rhetoric”, in Blackwood's Magazine
A counterpoint melody sung or played above the theme.

descant (third-person singular simple present descants, present participle descanting, simple past and past participle descanted)

(intransitive) To discuss at length.
- […] Samballat gaue his daughter Nicaſo to Manaſſes, the brother of Iaddus the High Prieſt, in the time of Darius the laſt Perſian Monarch. This Nehemia mentioneth, but deigneth not to name him, affirming that he chaſed him from him, of vvhich ſome deſcant vvhether it vvere by exile, or...1613, Samuel Purchas, “[Asia.] Of the Samaritans.”, in Purchas His Pilgrimage. Or Relations of the World and the Religions Observed in All Ages and Places Discouered, from the Creation vnto this...
- [B]ut shun the establishment of a bachelor who has hung a pendulum between temptation and prudence till the age of———but of all subjects, age is the one on which it is most invidious to descant.1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 128–129
(intransitive) To sing or play a descant.

উচ্চ সুর, আলোচনা

This Nehemia mentioneth, but deigneth not to name him, affirming that he chaſed him from him, of vvhich ſome deſcant vvhether it vvere by exile, or excommunication, or ſome other puniſhment.1613, Samuel Purchas, “[Asia.] Of the Samaritans.”, in Purchas His Pilgrimage. Or Relations of the World and the Religions Observed in All...
I am sure, Lord Stranleigh, that he has been descanting on the distraction of the woods and the camp, or perhaps the metropolitan dissipation of Philadelphia, […]1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:
Involving some interesting, intellectual trips, she was descanting lightly to right and left.1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, page 121

Noun
plural	descants
alternative form (archaic)	discant
Verb
third-person singular present	descants
present participle	descanting
past participle	descanted
past	descanted

From Anglo-Norman descaunt, from Medieval Latin discantus. Doublet of discant.

18 more rhymesFewer rhymes

What does descant mean?: Descant means a lengthy discourse on a subject.
What is descant in Bengali?: Descant in Bengali is উচ্চ সুর, আলোচনা. See Descant meaning in Bengali.
How do you use descant in a sentence?: This Nehemia mentioneth, but deigneth not to name him, affirming that he chaſed him from him, of vvhich ſome deſcant vvhether it vvere by exile, or excommunication, or ſome other puniſhment.
What part of speech is descant?: Descant can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce descant?: Descant is pronounced /ˈdɛskænt/ (UK).
What is the plural of descant?: The plural of descant is descants.

Adapted from Wiktionary: descant (page history and authors); Descant (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-descant.wav.

Cite this entry: “descant.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/descant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.