How to Use melancholy in a Sentence

melancholy

1 of 2 noun
  • What makes the piece so striking is the grandeur, and the huge melancholy of it.
    Jesse Hamlin, San Francisco Chronicle, 12 June 2018
  • Guadagnino wanted the solitude and melancholy of the landscape to set the tone of the film.
    Harper's BAZAAR, 19 Jan. 2023
  • Many of the customers were wearing masks; and there was a hint of melancholy in the air.
    Keith Pandolfi, The Enquirer, 19 Aug. 2021
  • There’s a deep melancholy to this episode that is hard to work through at first.
    Cate Young, Vulture, 27 May 2021
  • Their works share a melancholy woven from chiaroscuro — the play of light and shadow.
    Cate McQuaid, BostonGlobe.com, 11 July 2023
  • Her hair is pulled back, her arms crossed against the cold, her face melancholy.
    The New York Review of Books, 9 May 2019
  • And the city welcomed it, wrestled a steady heat from my melancholy.
    Megan Fernandes, The New Yorker, 29 June 2020
  • Yet there’s hope among the broad strokes of fantasy and melancholy here.
    David Fear, Rolling Stone, 8 Sep. 2023
  • There’s a sense of melancholy in all your work, from your shorts to your features.
    Rafael Motamayor, Vulture, 18 Apr. 2023
  • Building around him, only to lose him, sent waves of melancholy through the team.
    Jonathan Clegg, WSJ, 28 Nov. 2022
  • Her bouts of melancholy are an old story with the family.
    Vivian Gornick, New York Times, 14 June 2018
  • The knocking pulse of the song and airy background vocals belie its melancholy.
    Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAY, 23 June 2023
  • The end of a film festival always fills me with an equal sense of relief and melancholy.
    Odie Henderson, BostonGlobe.com, 14 Sep. 2023
  • Once a cure for melancholy, the National now feel like a cause.
    James Robins, Vulture, 1 May 2023
  • But the nostalgia mixed with melancholy as some of the most revered figures showed the effects of age, and the game’s toll.
    Kalyn Kahler, SI.com, 11 June 2019
  • Despite the faint air of melancholy, a raucous good time was had during the two-hour show.
    Donna Freedman, Anchorage Daily News, 28 June 2019
  • They would all be overcome by such melancholy that someone would begin to cry and keen.
    Olga Tokarczuk, The New Yorker, 13 Sep. 2021
  • But even the masks that Ruiz and his relatives wore couldn’t hide their melancholy.
    Los Angeles Times, 31 May 2021
  • Even in the maternity ward, the sight of women cradling babies roused the old melancholy.
    Washington Post, 6 May 2022
  • The actual song is pop, but there’s a real melancholy to it.
    Selma Fonseca, Billboard, 28 June 2019
  • With happy days unclear again, here are the books to lift your spirits or match your melancholy.
    Vanityfair.com, VanityFair.com, 21 Feb. 2017
  • The tempo is slow, the piano sketches out the chords on the upbeat, and the melody carries a sense of gentle melancholy.
    Mark Richardson, WSJ, 14 Nov. 2022
  • One is a deceptively upbeat song about the melancholy of change.
    Alex Apatoff, Peoplemag, 31 Aug. 2022
  • The excitement that had hung in the air was replaced by a fuzzy melancholy, and sadness for something lost.
    Redbook, 30 May 2017
  • Monk’s dominant energy at this point in the film is a jovial melancholy.
    Harmony Holiday, The New Yorker, 18 Mar. 2023
  • Never do the belly laughs undercut the bone-deep melancholy.
    A.a. Dowd, Chron, 15 Dec. 2022
  • While very much a feel-good movie, there’s a wistful melancholy that ebbs and flows throughout as well.
    Christopher Arnott, courant.com, 10 Nov. 2021
  • Hence, there’s always a hint of late-season melancholy.
    Martin Fritz Huber, Outside Online, 13 Sep. 2017
  • At first, her most troubling moods were described by Ernie as bouts of melancholy.
    Dave Lieber, Dallas News, 16 Apr. 2021
  • This wintertime melancholy is not just fodder for catchy lyrics.
    Jessica Ruiz, sun-sentinel.com, 9 Dec. 2021
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melancholy

2 of 2 adjective
  • She was in a melancholy mood.
  • He became quiet and melancholy as the hours slowly passed.
  • And the mood, by all rights, should have been melancholy.
    Michael Silver, San Francisco Chronicle, 18 Sep. 2022
  • The light is warm, and bright but melancholy music plays.
    Siobhan Burke, New York Times, 23 Oct. 2023
  • The pied piper of lost souls, the melancholy maestro.. tonite was your night.
    Jessica Nicholson, Billboard, 4 Apr. 2023
  • But the melancholy grew with the projections and music.
    Los Angeles Times, 26 July 2021
  • Need to get in the melancholy mood before tickets go on sale?
    oregonlive, 23 Jan. 2023
  • The mood is melancholy, but the music is going strange places.
    Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 12 Oct. 2022
  • This time of year gets kind of melancholy for me because, is this my last year?
    Mike Anthony, courant.com, 13 May 2018
  • But the tone the director sets here is more melancholy than abrasive.
    Justin Chang, latimes.com, 15 Feb. 2018
  • But the next couple of takes are infused with a more melancholy silence.
    Daniel D'addario, Variety, 4 Aug. 2022
  • Much like the myth, Avalon is full of grandeur as much as melancholy.
    Jill Krajewski, SPIN, 8 June 2022
  • And the general mood of melancholy that has settled over the country like a thick fog.
    Kenzie Bryant, vanityfair.com, 11 Sep. 2017
  • The whale was even dubbed wayward, a melancholy word if there ever was one.
    Matthew T. Hall, sandiegouniontribune.com, 12 Mar. 2018
  • But that’s not the end of the story, which has a melancholy coda in Greece.
    Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 May 2017
  • Some melancholy—not to say fearful—thoughts crop up in my head.
    Ian Parker, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2019
  • How, then, to account for the melancholy that veils the whole endeavor?
    Anthony Lan, The New Yorker, 16 July 2021
  • The overall effect is a more melancholy read of Mitchell's lyrics.
    Ed Masley, The Arizona Republic, 27 June 2023
  • Is there any feeling of sadness or melancholy about it?
    Gary Graff, cleveland, 2 June 2021
  • Or does the genre seem to demand a certain melancholy, an air of unease?
    Polly Rosenwaike, San Francisco Chronicle, 3 Nov. 2017
  • With the space closing, his final show there was a mix of deadpan and melancholy notes.
    Photographs By Nina Westervelt, New York Times, 31 Dec. 2022
  • Is anything more romantic and melancholy than a walk in the rain in Paris?
    Kat Bein, Billboard, 14 Mar. 2018
  • Her words are a mix of melancholy and matter-of-factness.
    USA Today, 12 Mar. 2021
  • So melancholy now, on the lonely gray seas, is tempered with sight of shore.
    Patricia Highsmith, The New Yorker, 27 Sep. 2021
  • His soft, melancholy manner was a perfect fit for those times in that place.
    Steve Meyer, Alaska Dispatch News, 20 Sep. 2017
  • Or a necklace made of lapis lazuli, believed by the ancients to ward off melancholy.
    Kathleen Rooney, The Atlantic, 21 Nov. 2021
  • While the kids play, the grown-ups brood and fret, and those nearing the end of life grow melancholy or bitter.
    Terrence Rafferty, The Atlantic, 8 Apr. 2020
  • There’s a melancholy in his face that Bradley echoes in her own images.
    Ismail Muhammad, New York Times, 6 Oct. 2020
  • And if that time does arrive, there will be some more melancholy moments.
    Star Tribune, 21 Nov. 2020
  • The death of spacecraft on distant worlds always feels melancholy.
    Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 24 May 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'melancholy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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