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melancholy

/ˈmɛl.ənˌkɑ.li/noun, adjective4 syllables

Melancholy means: grave or even gloomy in character.

Synonyms for melancholy23

noun, as in a humor that was once believed to be secreted by the kidneys or spleen and to cause sadness and melancholy

black bile

adjective, as in grave or even gloomy in character

somber, sombre, depressing, cheerless, uncheerful

adjective, as in characterized by or causing or expressing sadness

melancholic, sad

also used for melancholy

despondency, misery, blueness, tristesse, mirthless, blues, crestfallenness, dejection, depression, atrabiliary, atrabilious, blitheless, dispirited, blue, bummed out

Includes material from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

What does melancholy mean?5

adjective

1

grave or even gloomy in character“a suit of somber black”

2

characterized by or causing or expressing sadness“growing more melancholy every hour”

noun

1

a humor that was once believed to be secreted by the kidneys or spleen and to cause sadness and melancholy

2

a feeling of thoughtful sadness

3

a constitutional tendency to be gloomy and depressed

Definitions from the Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Melancholy in a sentence

  • Her face does not express fear, but rather melancholy.Miktsoanit
  • Like a delicate perfume, a gust of melancholy wrapped around him.Miktsoanit
  • The heart set out to ease melancholy, it encountered afflicted friends.anzart
  • His face does not express fear, but rather melancholy.Miktsoanit
  • This music has something in itself, which fills my heart with sweet melancholy.carlosalberto
  • Your face does not express fear, but rather melancholy.Miktsoanit
  • We sensed a melancholy note in his voice.unknown
  • He was overcome by a feeling of melancholy.CM

Sentences from Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR, credited to their authors.

Forms of melancholy

as a noun

plural
melancholies