Word.ws English Dictionary

discant

discant is the alternative form of descant.

Meaning of descant

Noun

descant (plural descants)

  1. 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
  2. A counterpoint melody sung or played above the theme.

See all 4 meanings of descant

Forms of discant

Noun
pluraldiscants
Verb
third-person singular presentdiscants
present participlediscanting
past participlediscanted
pastdiscanted

Origin of discant

Borrowed from Latin discantus; doublet of descant.

Words that rhyme with discant

18 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about discant

What is discant the alternative form of?
Discant is the alternative form of descant.

Words near discant in the dictionary

  1. discandied
  2. discandies
  3. discandium
  4. discandy
  5. discandying
  6. discant
  7. discanted
  8. discanting
  9. discants
  10. discapacitate
  11. discapacitated

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: discant (page history and authors); descant (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.

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