Standard Lemma guide

melancholy

adj · noun · 9 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /ˈmɛlənkəli/
  • US: /ˈmɛl.ənˌkɑ.li/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: M EH1 L AH0 N K AA2 L IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Affected with great sadness or depression.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: literary

Examples

  • Melancholy people don't talk much.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: melancholic, atrabiliary, atrabilious, blitheless, dispirited, blue, bummed out, chapfallen, cheerless, chopfallen, crestfallen, cut up, damp, dejected, depressed, despondent, disgruntled, disconsolate, disheartened, dismal, doleful, dolesome, down, down in the dumps, down in the mouth, downcast, downhearted, downsome, dull, elegiac, elegious, forlorn, gloomy, glum, grief-stricken, grieving, heavy-hearted, heartsore, heartsick, inconsolable, infelicitous, jawfallen, joyless, lachrymose, lamentful, low, low-spirited, lugubrious, lumpish, melancholy, miserable, moody, mopey, morose, mournful, passionate, plaintive, Plutonian, Plutonic, querulous, ruthful, sad, saddened, saturnine, shattered, solemn, sombre, sorrowful, sorrow-ridden, sorrowsome, spiritless, sullen, threnetic, threnetical, triste, tristful, uncheerful, uncheery, unconsolable, unhappy, unlively, wistful, woe, woebegone, woeful, wretched, comfortless, bleak, dark, depressing, desolate, dire, drear, drearisome, dreary, dreich, gayless, gray, gloomsome, grim, lack-laughter, mirthless, no joke, somber, sunless, unmerry, wintry

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Suggestive of wistfulness or subdued emotion.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

Black bile, formerly thought to be one of the four "cardinal humours" of animal bodies.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, historical, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

Great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: despondency, misery, blueness, tristesse, mirthless, blues, crestfallenness, dejection, depression, distress, dolefulness, downheartedness, drearihead, forlornness, grief, heartsore, ill-being, infelicity, melancholia, melancholy, mishappiness, mourn, prosternation, regret, rue, ruth, sadness, sorrow, sorrowfulness, tristfulness, undelight, unhappiness, woe, woefare, wretchedness

Antonyms: none provided

5

adjective satellite

Meaning 5

grave or even gloomy in character

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • solemn and mournful music
  • a suit of somber black
  • a somber mood

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: somber, sombre

Antonyms: none provided

6

adjective satellite

Meaning 6

characterized by or causing or expressing sadness

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • growing more melancholy every hour
  • her melancholic smile
  • we acquainted him with the melancholy truth

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: melancholic

Antonyms: none provided

7

noun

Meaning 7

a humor that was once believed to be secreted by the kidneys or spleen and to cause sadness and melancholy

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: black bile

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: liquid body substance, bodily fluid, body fluid, humor, humour

8

noun

Meaning 8

a feeling of thoughtful sadness

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: sadness, unhappiness

Narrower terms: gloom, gloominess, somberness, sombreness, heavyheartedness, pensiveness, brooding, world-weariness, Weltschmerz

9

noun

Meaning 9

a constitutional tendency to be gloomy and depressed

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: depression

History

Etymology

From Middle English malencolie, from Old French melancolie, from Ancient Greek μελαγχολία (melankholía, “atrabiliousness”) (from μέλας (mélas), μελαν- (melan-, “black, dark, murky”) + χολή (kholḗ, “bile”)), referring to the humour which ancient Hippocratic and later Galenic medicine associated with sadness and despondency. Compare the Latin ātra bīlis (“black bile”). The adjectival use is a Middle English innovation, perhaps influenced by the suffixes -y, -ly. Doublet of melancholia.

Across languages

Translations

87 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: سَوْدَاوِيَّة (sawdāwiyya) — Sadness or depression
  • Arabic: مَنَخوليا — Sadness or depression
  • Armenian: մելամաղձություն (melamaġjutʻyun) — Sadness or depression
  • Aromanian: milanculii — Sadness or depression
  • Azerbaijani: melanxoliya — Sadness or depression
  • Basque: malenkonia — Sadness or depression
  • Belarusian: меланхолія (mjelanxólija) — Sadness or depression
  • Bulgarian: меланхолия (melanholija) — Sadness or depression
  • Catalan: malenconia — Sadness or depression
  • Chinese Mandarin: 憂鬱 /忧郁 (yōuyù) — Sadness or depression
  • Chinese Mandarin: 悲哀 (bēi'āi) — Sadness or depression
  • Czech: melancholie — Sadness or depression
  • Danish: melankoli — Sadness or depression
  • Danish: vemod — Sadness or depression
  • Dutch: melancholie — Sadness or depression
  • Dutch: weemoed — Sadness or depression
  • Esperanto: melankolio — Sadness or depression
  • Estonian: melanhoolia — Sadness or depression
  • Finnish: melankolia — Sadness or depression
  • Finnish: apeus — Sadness or depression
  • Finnish: surumielisyys — Sadness or depression
  • Finnish: alakulo — Sadness or depression
  • French: mélancolie — Sadness or depression
  • Galician: melancolía — Sadness or depression
  • German: Melancholie — Sadness or depression
  • German: Schwermut — Sadness or depression
  • German: Wehmut — Sadness or depression
  • Greek: μελαγχολία (melancholía) — Sadness or depression
  • Hebrew: מָרָה שְׁחוֹרָה (mará shẖorá) — Sadness or depression
  • Hebrew: מְלַנְכּוֹלְיָה (m'lankólya) — Sadness or depression
  • Hungarian: melankólia — Sadness or depression
  • Icelandic: þunglyndi — Sadness or depression
  • Italian: malinconia — Sadness or depression
  • Japanese: 憂鬱 (yūutsu) — Sadness or depression
  • Japanese: 鬱病 (utsubyō) — Sadness or depression
  • Korean: 우울 (uul) — Sadness or depression
  • Korean: 침울 (chimul) — Sadness or depression
  • Latin: melancholia — Sadness or depression
  • Lithuanian: melancholija — Sadness or depression
  • Manchu: ᠠᡴᠠᠴᡠᠨ (akacun) — Sadness or depression
  • Māori: kainatu — Sadness or depression
  • Māori: rāwakiwaki — Sadness or depression
  • Mongolian: ухаан балартан (uxaan balartan) — Sadness or depression
  • Navajo: chʼíínáí — Sadness or depression
  • Norwegian Bokmål: melankoli — Sadness or depression
  • Norwegian Bokmål: tungsinn — Sadness or depression
  • Norwegian Bokmål: svartsyn — Sadness or depression
  • Norwegian Bokmål: vemod — Sadness or depression
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: tunglynde — Sadness or depression
  • Persian: مالیخولیا (mâlixuliyâ) — Sadness or depression
  • Persian: مالنخولیا (mâlenxuliyâ) — Sadness or depression
  • Polish: melancholia — Sadness or depression
  • Portuguese: melancolia — Sadness or depression
  • Romanian: melancolie — Sadness or depression
  • Romanian: tristețe — Sadness or depression
  • Russian: меланхо́лия (melanxólija) — Sadness or depression
  • Scottish Gaelic: dòlasachd — Sadness or depression
  • Scottish Gaelic: mulad — Sadness or depression
  • Scottish Gaelic: èislean — Sadness or depression
  • Scottish Gaelic: cianalas — Sadness or depression
  • Scottish Gaelic: tùirse — Sadness or depression
  • Scottish Gaelic: truime — Sadness or depression
  • Scottish Gaelic: dubhachas — Sadness or depression
  • Serbo-Croatian: меланхолија — Sadness or depression
  • Serbo-Croatian: меланколија — Sadness or depression
  • Serbo-Croatian: melanhòlija — Sadness or depression
  • Serbo-Croatian: melankòlija — Sadness or depression
  • Sicilian: malancunìa — Sadness or depression
  • Slovak: melanchólia — Sadness or depression
  • Slovene: melanholija — Sadness or depression
  • Spanish: melancolía — Sadness or depression
  • Spanish: engurrio — Sadness or depression
  • Spanish: melarchía — Sadness or depression
  • Spanish: flato — Sadness or depression
  • Swedish: melankoli — Sadness or depression
  • Swedish: svårmod — Sadness or depression
  • Swedish: vemod — Sadness or depression
  • Swedish: tungsinne — Sadness or depression
  • Tajik: молихулиё (molixuliyo) — Sadness or depression
  • Turkish: melankoli — Sadness or depression
  • Turkish: hüzün — Sadness or depression
  • Turkish: durgunluk — Sadness or depression
  • Ottoman Turkish: وحشت (vahşet) — Sadness or depression
  • Ottoman Turkish: سودا (sevda) — Sadness or depression
  • Ukrainian: меланхолія (melanxolija) — Sadness or depression
  • Vietnamese: trầm cảm — Sadness or depression
  • Walloon: miråcoleye — Sadness or depression
Real reading context

melancholy in complete knowledge articles