melancholy

1 causing unhappiness the melancholy thought of having to say good-bye to all the friends he had made over the summer Synonyms of melancholy depressing, dismal, drear, dreary, heartbreaking, heartrending, sad, mournful, pathetic, saddening, sorry, tearful, tearyWords Related to melancholy deplorable, distressful, grievous, lamentable, unfortunate, woeful; discomforting, discomposing, disquieting, distressing, disturbing, perturbing; affecting, moving, poignant, touching; discouraging, disheartening, dispiritingNear Antonyms of melancholy heartening, heartwarming, inspiring, stimulating, stirring, uplifting; agreeable, delightful, enjoyable, pleasant, pleasing, pleasurable, satisfying, welcome; exhilarating, thrillingAntonyms of melancholy cheering, cheery, glad, happy

2 feeling unhappiness she was a bit melancholy after her youngest child left for college Synonyms of melancholy bad, blue, brokenhearted, cast down, crestfallen, dejected, depressed, despondent, disconsolate, doleful, down, downcast, downhearted, down in the mouth, droopy, forlorn, gloomy, glum, hangdog, heartbroken, heartsick, heartsore, heavyhearted, inconsolable, joyless, low, low-spirited, melancholic, sad, miserable, mournful, saddened, sorrowful, sorry, unhappy, woebegone, woeful, wretchedWords Related to melancholy aggrieved, distressed, troubled, uneasy, unquiet, upset, worried; despairing, hopeless, sunk; disappointed, discouraged, disheartened, dispirited; suicidal; dolorous, lachrymose, lugubrious, plaintive, tearful; regretful, rueful; agonized, anguished, grieving, wailing, weeping; black, bleak, cheerless, comfortless, dark, darkening, depressing, desolate, dismal, drear, dreary, elegiac (also elegiacal), funereal, gray (also grey), morbid, morose, murky, saturnine, somber (or sombre), sullenNear Antonyms of melancholy ecstatic, elated, enraptured, entranced, euphoric, exhilarated, exuberant, exultant, overjoyed, rapturous, rhapsodic (also rhapsodical); blithe, blithesome, jocose, jocular, jocund, jolly, jovial, lightsome, merry, mirthful; excited, thrilled; hopeful, optimistic, rosy, sanguine; encouraged, heartened; animated, bouncing, energetic, frisky, jaunty, lively, peppy, perky, spirited, sprightful, sprightly, springy, vital, vivacious, zippy; content, gratified, pleased, satisfied; beaming, grinning, laughing, smiling; boon, carefree, careless, cavalier, devil-may-care, easygoing, happy-go-lucky, insouciant, lighthearted, unconcernedAntonyms of melancholy blissful, buoyant, buoyed, cheerful, cheery, chipper, delighted, glad, gladdened, gladsome, gleeful, happy, joyful, joyous, jubilant, sunny, upbeat

3 given to or marked by long, quiet thinking a melancholy period in the artist's life that is reflected in his work Synonyms of melancholy broody, cogitative, meditative, contemplative, musing, pensive, reflective, ruminant, ruminative, thoughtfulWords Related to melancholy introspective, retrospective, self-reflective; earnest, grave, sedate, serious, serious-minded, severe, sober, solemn, somber (or sombre), weighty; philosophical (also philosophic); analytic (or analytical), logical, rational; deliberate, purposeful; absentminded, abstracted, preoccupiedNear Antonyms of melancholy featherbrained, flighty, flippant, frivolous, goofy, harebrained, light-headed, scatterbrained; brainless, mindless, silly, thoughtless, unthinkingAntonyms of melancholy unreflective

a state or spell of low spirits the bleakness of winter sometimes gives me cause for melancholy Synonyms of melancholy blue devils, blues, dejection, depression, desolation, despond, despondence, despondency, disconsolateness, dispiritedness, doldrums, dolefulness, downheartedness, dreariness, dumps, forlornness, gloom, gloominess, glumness, heartsickness, joylessness, sadness, miserableness, mopes, mournfulness, oppression, sorrowfulness, unhappinessWords Related to melancholy melancholia, self-pity; anguish, dolor, grief, mourning, somberness, sorrow, woefulness; agony, distress, pain; misery, woe, wretchedness; discouragement, disheartenment; moodiness; despair, desperation, hopelessness, self-despair; boredom, ennui, tedium; dismalness, drear, morbidness, moroseness, morosity; regret, rueNear Antonyms of melancholy gaiety (also gayety), gayness, glee, gleefulness, humor, jollity, joviality, lightheartedness, merriment, mirth, mirthfulness; cheer, cheerfulness, cheeriness, hopefulness, optimism, sunniness; content, contentedness, contentment, satisfaction; delight, gratificationAntonyms of melancholy bliss, blissfulness, ecstasy, elatedness, elation, euphoria, exhilaration, exuberance, exultation, felicity, gladness, gladsomeness, happiness, heaven, intoxication, joy, joyfulness, joyousness, jubilation, rapture, rapturousness