Definition of "tanka" []

• A Japanese verse form in five lines, the first and third composed of five syllables and the rest of seven. (noun)
• A Tibetan religious painting on fabric, usually portraying the Buddha or lamas in stereotyped aspects. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In it, the concluding hemistich of the tanka is left off, and it is just in his hemistich that the meaning of the poem is brought out, so that the hokku is a mere essence, a whiff of an idea to be created in full by the hearer."
• "We paid the performers one tanka, which is about eight cents, each."
• "Sooner or later this crystallized into what is called a tanka or short ode."