In the context of Christian liturgy, a canticle (/ˈkæntɪkəl/; from the Latin canticulum, a diminutive of canticum, "song") is a psalm-like song with biblical lyrics taken from elsewhere than the Book of Psalms, but included in psalters and books such as the breviary. Of special importance to the Divine Office are three New Testament Canticles that are the climaxes of the Offices of Lauds, Vespers and Compline; these are respectively Benedictus (Luke 1:68-79), Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) and Nunc dimittis (Luke 2:29-32). There are also a number of Canticles taken from the Old Testament.

Prior to the Pope Pius X's 1911 reforms, the following cycle of seven Old Testament Canticles was used at Lauds:

These are rather long, and the weekday ones display something of a penitential theme, but some were not often used, as all feasts and the weekdays in Eastertide had the Canticle of Daniel, assigned to Sunday.^{[citation needed]}

The 1911 reform introduced for weekdays not of penitential nature, and for lesser feasts and days of the lesser octaves, the following Canticles:

For weekdays in Advent, Pre-Lent, Lent and the quarterly Ember Days, if not superseded by higher-ranking feasts—due to the multitude of feasts in the rest of the year, these make up almost the totality of the days that did not have the Canticle of Daniel before—the original seven Canticles would still be used.

The Liturgy of the Hours (introduced in 1971) uses one canticle from the Old Testament each day at Lauds, "each weekday of the four-week cycle [has] its own proper canticle and on Sunday the two sections of the Canticle of the Three Children may be alternated". The liturgy prior to the reform after Vatican II used fourteen Old Testament Canticles in two weekly cycles.

At Vespers according to the Liturgy of the Hours, a Canticle from the New Testament is used. These follow a weekly cycle, with some exceptions.

Additionally, the following Canticles from the Gospel of Luke (also called the “Evangelical Canticles”) are said daily: