melancholia

noun

mel·​an·​cho·​lia ˌme-lən-ˈkō-lē-ə 

1

: severe depression characterized especially by profound sadness and despair

Tense, irritable, I crashed into a fit of melancholia and found myself crying over inconsequential problems.

—Susan Wood

A depressed Johnson was not the father figure that Boswell, himself prey to … bouts of melancholia and insecurity, wanted to celebrate.

—Brooke Allen

2

: a sad quality or mood : melancholy

There's a touching melancholia to his voice …

—Ralph Novak

Like Wallace's breakthrough novel, "Infinite Jest," "The Pale King" is pervaded by an air of melancholia, an acute sense of loss.

—Tom McCarthy

melancholiac

ˌme-lən-ˈkō-lē-ˌak 

noun

plural melancholiacs

Did you know?

When is a word full of humor yet far from humorous? Melancholia traces back to Greek melan- ("black, dark") and cholē ("bile"). Medical practitioners once adhered to the system of humors—bodily fluids that included black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm. An imbalance of these humors was thought to lead to disorders of the mind and body. One suffering from an excess of black bile (believed to be secreted by the kidneys or spleen) could become sullen, unsociable, and liable to depression. Today, doctors no longer ascribe physical and mental disorders to disruptions of the four humors, but the word melancholia is still used in psychiatry as a general term for despondency.

Examples of melancholia in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Trousdale’s songs adroitly address female empowerment, loss, heartbreak, anxiety, mental health and other subjects while striking a winning balance between melancholia and buoyancy. —George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 May 2025

Marked by a graceful melancholia and filled with daunting technical feats, especially the director’s signature, logistics-defying long takes, his films are beautifully realized meditations on nostalgia and loss in which the cinema tends to be a character itself. —Jordan Mintzer, HollywoodReporter, 23 May 2025

All the same, Cronenberg gives the material an appropriately wintry melancholia, while coaxing an iconically intense (and quotable!) performance from his star, Christopher Walken. —A.a. Dowd, Vulture, 28 Apr. 2025

There is also some melancholia into becoming the early-20th century version of being caught in an undesired viral moment. —David John Chávez, Mercury News, 16 Apr. 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin, going back to Late Latin, "preponderance of black bile" — more at melancholy entry 1

First Known Use

circa 1553, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for melancholia

• genitalia
• castalia
• polya

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Kids Definition

melancholia

noun

mel·​an·​cho·​lia ˌmel-ən-ˈkō-lē-ə 

: a mental condition marked especially by extreme depression

Medical Definition

melancholia

noun

mel·​an·​cho·​lia ˌmel-ən-ˈkō-lē-ə 

: severe depression characterized especially by profound sadness and despair