melancholy

1 of 2

noun

mel·​an·​choly ˈme-lən-ˌkä-lē 

plural melancholies

1

a

: depression of spirits : dejection

great outbursts of creativity alternate with feelings of extreme melancholy

—Brenda Lane Richardson

Mitchell sounds utterly alone in her melancholy, turning the sadness into tender art.

—Rolling Stone

b

: a pensive mood

a fine romantic kind of a melancholy on the fading of the year

—Richard Holmes

One white arm and hand drooped over the side of the chair, and her whole pose and figure spoke of an absorbing melancholy.

—Arthur Conan Doyle

2

a

: melancholia sense 1

b

archaic : an abnormal state attributed to an excess of black bile and characterized by irascibility or depression

c

archaic : black bile

melancholy

2 of 2

adjective

1

a

: suggestive or expressive of sadness or depression of mind or spirit

sang in a melancholy voice

b

: causing or tending to cause sadness or depression of mind or spirit : dismal

a melancholy thought

2

a

: depressed in spirits : dejected, sad

b

: pensive

Synonyms

Noun

• blue devils
• blues
• dejection
• depression
• desolation
• despond
• despondence
• despondency
• disconsolateness
• dispiritedness
• doldrums
• dolefulness
• downheartedness
• dreariness
• dumps
• forlornness
• gloom
• gloominess
• glumness
• heartsickness
• joylessness
• miserableness
• mopes
• mournfulness
• oppression
• sadness
• sorrowfulness
• unhappiness

Adjective

• depressing
• dismal
• drear
• dreary
• heartbreaking
• heartrending
• mournful
• pathetic
• sad
• saddening
• sorry
• tearful
• teary

Examples of melancholy in a Sentence

Noun

the bleakness of winter sometimes gives me cause for melancholy

Adjective

A melancholy lesson of advancing years is the realization that you can't make old friends. —Christopher Hitchens, Harper's, June 1999

He has a snarled mop of spiky black hair, melancholy circles around his eyes, and a tiny Cupid's-bow mouth. —Pauline Kael, New Yorker, 17 Dec. 1990

I see your mournful party in my mind's eye under every varying circumstance of the day;  … the efforts to talk, the frequent summons to melancholy orders and cares, and poor Edward, restless in misery, going from one room to the other … —Jane Austen, letter, 24 Oct. 1808

She was in a melancholy mood.

He became quiet and melancholy as the hours slowly passed.

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Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

This squabbling can be fun, but there’s an underlying melancholy because the breakups were often precipitated by illness or death. —Sibbie O'Sullivan, Washington Post, 6 Sep. 2023

The owner of the palazzo, a grieving opera soprano named Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly, a master of melancholy), has invited a famous medium, Mrs. Joyce Reynolds (an entrancing Michelle Yeoh) to perform a séance. —Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times, 14 Sep. 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

Trending Taylor Swift Makes History at 2023 VMAs MTV VMAs 2023: See the Complete Winners List In the end, he’s left sitting on a swing set, wallowing in his melancholy. —Larisha Paul, Rolling Stone, 13 Sep. 2023

And a two-song tribute to Jimmy Buffett performed later in the show triggered heart-wilting melancholy. —Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAY, 9 Sep. 2023

So, consider that intense melancholy a passenger on this final trip around the Pac-12 sun. —Bill Oram, oregonlive, 1 Sep. 2023

Yes, the tropical sound is as noticeable as a sunburn and the living-for-the-moment messaging is bold like a T-shirt slogan, but that extra layer of depth, introspection, and melancholy is often absent. —Joseph Hudak, Rolling Stone, 3 Sep. 2023

An immediate hit upon its release in 1977, the song encapsulated his mellow charms, laced with a hint of melancholy. —Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Los Angeles Times, 2 Sep. 2023

Adjective

The good ol’ days are spoken of often, usually with more melancholy than fondness. —Michael Nordine, Variety, 23 Sep. 2023

The rich vein of melancholy regret running through Out of Season (Hors-Saison) at times risks tipping over into kitschy nostalgia, with its Lelouch-like intimacy playing out on a wintry seashore to the strains of a wispy, sentimental score. —David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Sep. 2023

Released July 12, the melancholy pop-rock song debuts at No. 13 on Hot Alternative Songs, No. 25 on Hot Rock Songs, and No. 32 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs with 2.8 million U.S. streams earned in the latest tracking week. —Xander Zellner, Billboard, 7 Sep. 2023

Here, Hamlet is a melancholy suburban prince named Juicy, in a Black family rocked by betrayal and fratricide and ghosts who pop out of backyard grills. —Peter Marks, Washington Post, 5 Sep. 2023

However, by the second movement, Kavakos’s violin keened a melancholy, aria-esque melody in iridescent threads of sound, answered in turn by a cool flute. —Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 21 Aug. 2023

Both of their sessions were melancholy, in stark contrast to the upbeat mood in the Dodgers’ clubhouse down the hall. —Brian Dulik, BostonGlobe.com, 23 Aug. 2023

But as melancholy as that sounds, there’s plenty of new stuff on the horizon, too, including everything from a new take on (part of) Dracula and an ambitious miniseries about the opioid crisis. —Keith Phipps, Rolling Stone, 1 Aug. 2023

The melancholy romantic drama features Greta Lee as a woman observed at three points in time, with Teo Yoo and John Magaro as the men whose fates are tethered to hers across two continents. —David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 June 2023

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Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English malencolie, melancolie "black bile, preponderance or excess of black bile, state (as anger or sorrow) produced by excessive black bile," borrowed from Anglo-French & Late Latin; Anglo-French malencolie, melencolie, borrowed from Late Latin melancholia (Medieval Latin malencolia, by association with the prefix mal- mal-), borrowed from Greek melancholía, from melan-, athematic variant of melano- melano- + cholḗ "bile" + -ia -ia entry 1 — more at gall entry 1

Adjective

Middle English malincolie, melancolie, from attributive use of malencolie melancholy entry 1, probably reinforced by construal of -ly as an adjective suffix

First Known Use

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2b

Adjective

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

melancholy

1 of 2 noun

mel·​an·​choly ˈmel-ən-ˌkäl-ē 

plural melancholies

: a sad or gloomy mood or condition

melancholy

2 of 2 adjective

1

: depressed in spirits : dejected, sad

2

: seriously thoughtful

3

: causing sadness : dismal

a melancholy thought

Etymology

Noun

Middle English malencolie "melancholy," from early French melancolie (same meaning), from Latin melancholia (same meaning), from Greek melancholia "melancholy," literally, "black bile," from melan-, melas "black" and cholē "bile"; so called from the ancient belief that the condition was caused by an excess of what was thought to be black bile in the body — related to choleric, melanin see Word History at humor

Medical Definition

melancholy

noun

mel·​an·​choly ˈmel-ən-ˌkäl-ē 

plural melancholies

1

: depression or dejection of spirits

also : melancholia

2

archaic

a

: an abnormal state attributed to an excess of black bile and characterized by irascibility or depression

b

: black bile

melancholy adjective