Noun

1. A passage of several notes sung to one syllable of text, as in Gregorian chant.
   • 2007, Michael Chabon, Gentlemen of the Road, Sceptre 2008, p. 38:

     At the top of the hill in the archway of the main house, an eyeless old man sat on a bucket, scratching at a two-stringed gourd, warbling weird melismas on a madman's text.

   • 1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked:

     A choir sang one of the Lamentations of Jeremiah. The mournful melisma accompanied the slow procession to the palace built by Herod the Great, at present untenanted.