Gloss · Words · Melancholy

melancholy

ˈmɛlənˌkɒlinoun

What does melancholy mean?

A deep, quiet sadness that stays for a while and has no single cause.

Melancholy, six ways

PlainA deep, quiet sadness that stays for a while and has no single cause.
ADHDA heavy, quiet sadness. No clear reason. It lingers.
Gen ZThat soft, heavy sadness on a gray Sunday when nothing is wrong exactly, but everything feels a bit much.
MetaphorWeather that settles over a person instead of a town.
FormalA pensive sadness, typically with no obvious cause; in older medicine, a condition ascribed to an excess of black bile.
Like I’m 5A sad, slow feeling that hangs around, even when nothing bad happened. That’s melancholy.

How to pronounce melancholy

MEL-un-kol-ee/ˈmɛlənˌkɒli/

Melancholy in a sentence

A melancholy settled over the house after the guests left.
There’s a pleasant melancholy to late autumn.
Victorian poets made a cult of melancholy.

Synonyms for melancholy

sadnessPlainer and more general.
gloomDarker and heavier.
wistfulnessSad, with longing.

Melancholy vs wistful: Melancholy is a sadness that settles in. Wistful is a sadness with a wish in it. The difference, in plain English.

Where melancholy comes from

Greek. Melas, black, and kholē, bile. Ancient doctors blamed the feeling on too much black bile in the body.

Good to know

Also an adjective: a melancholy tune. It is softer and slower than grief, and it can feel almost pleasant.

Melancholy meaning, on a Gloss card: A deep, quiet sadness that stays for a while and has no single cause.

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Words like melancholy

wistful · poignant · euphoria · mellifluous · magnanimous · resplendent · All 110 words

In: Words for feelings · Words that make you sound smart · Latin and Greek roots