melisma
Portuguese, noun/meˈliz.mɐ/
melisma is spelled M-E-L-I-S-M-A (7 letters) and appears about once in every 60 million words in written Portuguese, the 215,563rd most frequent Portuguese word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Melisma is a Portuguese masculine noun meaning “melisma (a passage of several notes sung to one syllable of text)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) defines it as “técnica de alterar a nota (sensação de frequência) de uma sílaba de um texto enquanto ela está sendo cantada”.
What does melisma mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinemelisma (a passage of several notes sung to one syllable of text)
Source: English Wiktionary, Portuguese section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Portuguese dictionaries define it
noun: 1. técnica de alterar a nota (sensação de frequência) de uma sílaba de um texto enquanto ela está sendo cantada
The definition in the Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), in Portuguese.
Source: Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of melisma
- melismas plural
Source: English Wiktionary and Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce melisma?
- Brazil /meˈliz.mɐ/
- /meˈliʒ.mɐ/
- Portugal /mɨˈliʒ.mɐ/
Sources: English Wiktionary, Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to melisma
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is melisma in Portuguese?
melisma appears about once in every 60 million words in written Portuguese.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).