What does "melismatic" mean?

Of, relating to, or being a melisma; the style of singing several notes to one syllable of text.

What is a synonym for "melismatic"?

Common synonyms include: neumatic, syllabic.

Melismatic

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1
Of, relating to, or being a melisma; the style of singing several notes to one syllable of text.
"Because slower metrical types are more melismatic and ornamented than primary-meter, their melodic-passages in both xipi and erhuang are more melismatic and complex than those of primary-meter."

Synonyms

All synonyms

neumatic syllabic

Example

More examples

"Because slower metrical types are more melismatic and ornamented than primary-meter, their melodic-passages in both xipi and erhuang are more melismatic and complex than those of primary-meter."

Etymology

From melismata + -ic or melisma + -tic.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.