\Ron*deau"\, n. [F. See {Roundel}.] [Written also
{rondo}.]
1. A species of lyric poetry so composed as to contain a
   refrain or repetition which recurs according to a fixed
   law, and a limited number of rhymes recurring also by
   rule.
Note: When the rondeau was called the rondel it was mostly
      written in fourteen octosyllabic lines of two rhymes,
      as in the rondels of Charles d'Orleans. . . . In the
      17th century the approved form of the rondeau was a
      structure of thirteen verses with a refrain. --Encyc.
      Brit.
2. (Mus.) See {Rondo}, 1.