Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In music: Melodious, Ornamented; adorned.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective music of, relating to, or being a melisma; the style of singing several notes to one syllable of text – an attribute of some Islamic and Gregorian chants.

Etymologies

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Examples

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  • I was waiting for the bus one day, and the word "melismatic" popped into my head out of nowhere. I wasn't sure if I had ever heard it before. I went to a dictionary soon as I got a chance and found out it was a real word — with such a lovely meaning, too. Maybe I had heard it a long time ago and it just lurked in my subconscious for an unmeasured time.

    January 3, 2007