Christian Church. A phrase, sentence, or verse, usually sung, introduced in the medieval Western Church as an embellishment into some part of the…

A versicle or sentence sung by one choir in response to another.

A phrase, sentence, or longer text set to the individual notes or note-groups of a pre-existent melisma (melisma, n.).

(a) Historical. In Poetry, a refrain, a short colon subjoined to a strophe. (b) In some Eastern Churches, a refrain to a hymn; an antiphonal refrain.