Synonyms of melancholy

melancholy 1 of 2

adjective

1

as in sad

causing unhappiness

the melancholy thought of having to say good-bye to all the friends he had made over the summer

Synonyms & Similar Words

• sad
• depressing
• mournful
• pathetic
• unfortunate
• tearful
• heartbreaking
• disturbing
• saddening
• dreary
• drear
• dismal
• teary
• sorry
• heartrending
• distressful
• lamentable
• disquieting
• distressing
• deplorable
• poignant
• woeful
• grievous
• moving
• perturbing
• discomforting
• touching
• affecting
• discouraging
• dispiriting
• disheartening
• discomposing

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• happy
• cheery
• glad
• uplifting
• inspiring
• pleasant
• stimulating
• stirring
• delightful
• agreeable
• heartening
• enjoyable
• satisfying
• welcome
• pleasurable
• pleasing
• cheering
• heartwarming
• exhilarating
• thrilling

2

as in depressed

feeling unhappiness

they were a bit melancholy after their youngest child left for college

Synonyms & Similar Words

• sad
• depressed
• unhappy
• heartbroken
• miserable
• bad
• mournful
• sorry
• melancholic
• sorrowful
• upset
• worried
• uneasy
• doleful
• gloomy
• hopeless
• disconsolate
• forlorn
• downcast
• troubled
• dejected
• disappointed
• glum
• woebegone
• joyless
• despondent
• inconsolable
• blue
• heartsick
• depressing
• crestfallen
• hangdog
• wretched
• suicidal
• woeful
• brokenhearted
• droopy
• saddened
• distressed
• heavyhearted
• low-spirited
• downhearted
• down
• low
• heartsore
• despairing
• discouraged
• down in the mouth
• grieving
• tearful
• cast down
• somber
• unquiet
• aggrieved
• sunk
• lugubrious
• dispirited
• weeping
• bleak
• morbid
• dolorous
• plaintive
• lachrymose
• regretful
• morose
• anguished
• desolate
• elegiac
• rueful
• sullen
• disheartened
• cheerless
• gray
• dark
• wailing
• saturnine
• agonized
• dreary
• funereal
• drear
• dismal
• darkening
• comfortless
• black
• murky

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• joyous
• joyful
• cheerful
• buoyant
• blissful
• happy
• upbeat
• jubilant
• cheery
• gleeful
• glad
• sunny
• exuberant
• euphoric
• rapturous
• ecstatic
• merry
• jovial
• exultant
• buoyed
• rhapsodic
• mirthful
• jolly
• delighted
• chipper
• optimistic
• blithe
• jocular
• enraptured
• jocose
• hopeful
• excited
• sanguine
• rosy
• gladsome
• energetic
• blithesome
• jocund
• spirited
• elated
• exhilarated
• gladdened
• lightsome
• lively
• vital
• vivacious
• overjoyed
• jaunty
• smiling
• sprightly
• entranced
• animated
• content
• perky
• frisky
• laughing
• satisfied
• peppy
• bouncing
• springy
• encouraged
• carefree
• careless
• lighthearted
• pleased
• zippy
• easygoing
• gratified
• thrilled
• unconcerned
• grinning
• insouciant
• cavalier
• heartened
• boon
• sprightful
• beaming
• happy-go-lucky
• devil-may-care

3

as in thoughtful

given to or marked by long, quiet thinking

a melancholy period in the artist's life that is reflected in his work

Synonyms & Similar Words

• thoughtful
• reflective
• somber
• pensive
• philosophical
• contemplative
• ruminative
• meditative
• solemn
• broody
• musing
• cogitative
• serious
• ruminant
• logical
• introspective
• retrospective
• rational
• earnest
• preoccupied
• analytic
• sober
• sedate
• deliberate
• self-reflective
• severe
• grave
• serious-minded
• purposeful
• abstracted
• weighty
• absentminded

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• unreflective
• frivolous
• flippant
• goofy
• scatterbrained
• thoughtless
• silly
• flighty
• unthinking
• harebrained
• mindless
• light-headed
• featherbrained
• brainless

melancholy

2 of 2

noun

ˈme-lən-ˌkä-lē 

as in sadness

a state or spell of low spirits

the bleakness of winter sometimes gives me cause for melancholy

Synonyms & Similar Words

• sadness
• depression
• sorrowfulness
• mournfulness
• sorrow
• gloom
• grief
• anguish
• dejection
• gloominess
• blues
• unhappiness
• misery
• oppression
• glumness
• despair
• heartsickness
• dreariness
• desperation
• joylessness
• forlornness
• agony
• mourning
• despondence
• despondency
• dumps
• pain
• miserableness
• melancholia
• desolation
• mopes
• despond
• boredom
• downheartedness
• blue devils
• distress
• doldrums
• regret
• somberness
• disconsolateness
• self-pity
• dispiritedness
• dolefulness
• hopelessness
• discouragement
• woe
• wretchedness
• dolor
• ennui
• moroseness
• morbidness
• moodiness
• disheartenment
• drear
• tedium
• woefulness
• rue
• self-despair
• dismalness
• morosity

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• joy
• happiness
• exultation
• exuberance
• joyousness
• elation
• ecstasy
• euphoria
• intoxication
• bliss
• rapture
• jubilation
• gladness
• joyfulness
• exhilaration
• mirth
• felicity
• heaven
• gaiety
• glee
• merriment
• humor
• jollity
• optimism
• joviality
• lightheartedness
• cheerfulness
• hopefulness
• blissfulness
• gayness
• cheeriness
• satisfaction
• mirthfulness
• contentment
• cheer
• gleefulness
• elatedness
• rapturousness
• content
• gladsomeness
• sunniness
• contentedness
• delight
• gratification

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of melancholy

Adjective

What reads at a casual distance as serene maternal tenderness shifts, on closer inspection, into something more ambivalent—a shade of melancholy that surfaces only when the eye lingers on Mary’s face. — Carmen Rosenberg-Miller, Artforum, 6 Aug. 2026

Midland put their stamp on the idea by maintaining those mixed emotions of melancholy and excitement; the romance but also the rootlessness of a life spent on the road. — Stephen Deusner, SPIN, 3 Aug. 2026

Noun

The specific kind of melancholy that only exists between Halloween and the first real snow. — Hanna Wickes, Charlotte Observer, 29 Apr. 2026

Fanning’s name was the first called when nominations were announced, signaling that Scandinavian melancholy would be notably absent that morning. — Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Times, 9 Feb. 2026