Petrarchan Syllabification: (Pe·trar·chan)Pronunciation: /pəˈträrkən/Definition of Petrarchan adjective denoting a sonnet of the kind used by the Italian poet Petrarch, with an octave rhyming abbaabba, and a sestet typically rhyming cdcdcd or cdecde. Petrarchan in other Oxford dictionaries Definition of Petrarchan in the British & World English dictionary