Link Centre Dictionary

tanka

uncommon

noun

1.

a form of Japanese poetry; the 1st and 3rd lines have five syllables and the 2nd, 4th, and 5th have seven syllables

2.

Origin

From Japanese 短歌 (tanka, “short song”), from Middle Chinese 短 (MC twanX) 歌 (MC ka) (compare Mandarin 短歌 (duǎngē) duǎngē).

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.