canticle

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A song or chant, especially a nonmetrical hymn with words taken from a biblical text other than from the Book of Psalms.
2. n. Bible The Song of Songs.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. One of the non-metrical hymns recorded in the Bible as sung on some special occasion, and expressive of joy, thanksgiving, or confidence in God's help.
2. n. One of these hymns, or a composition of similar character, arranged for chanting, and so used in church service. Both the Roman Catholic and the Greek churches use as canticles the songs of Moses (Ex. xv. 1–19 and Deut. xxxii. 1–43), Hannah (1 Sam, ii. 1–10), and Habakkuk (iii. 2–19). In Isaiah the Roman Catholic Church has canticles taken from chapters xii. and xxxviii. (10–20), and the Greek from chapter xxvi. (9–20). The Roman Catholic, Greek, and Anglican churches all use the Benedicite as found in the third chapter of Daniel in the Septuagint and Vulgate, comprising verses 35–66 of the Song of the Three Holy Children in the English Apocrypha; the Greek Church also employs the preceding verses (3–34) as a separate canticle. The three taken from the gospels, and accordingly known as the Evangelical Canticles (namely, the Magnificat, the Benedictus, and the Nunc Dimittis), are also used by all the three churches just named. The Te Deum is accounted a canticle, although not found in the Bible. The English and American Books of Common Prayer also use certain psalms as canticles, namely, psalms lxvii. (Deus Misereatur), xcviii. (Cantate), and c. (Jubilate), to which the American book adds xcii. (Bonum est) and ciii. (Benedic). Some writers also account the Venite (psalm xcv.), the Gloria in Excelsis, and the Trisagion canticles.
3. n. Specifically [capitalized] plural The Songs, otherwise called the Song of Songs, or Song of Solomon (LL. Canticum Canticorum Salomonis), one of the books of the Old Testament. Until the nineteenth century it was universally ascribed to Solomon, but some critics now think it of later date.
4. n. A division of a song or poem; a canto.
5. n. Any song or hymn, properly one that is brief and simple.

Wiktionary

1. n. a chant, hymn or song, especially a nonmetrical one, with words from a biblical text

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. obsolete A song; esp. a little song or hymn.
2. n. The Song of Songs or Song of Solomon, one of the books of the Old Testament.
3. n. obsolete A canto or division of a poem.
4. n. A psalm, hymn, or passage from the Bible, arranged for chanting in church service.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a hymn derived from the Bible