melancholy

1 of 2

noun

mel·an·choly ˈme-lən-ˌkä-lē

plural melancholies

: 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

: 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

: melancholia sense 1

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

archaic : black bile

melancholy

2 of 2

adjective

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

sang in a melancholy voice

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

a melancholy thought

: depressed in spirits : dejected, sad

: pensive

Example Sentences

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. See More

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Building around him, only to lose him, sent waves of melancholy through the team.

Jonathan Clegg, WSJ, 28 Nov. 2022 The Windsors’ oldest son, Charles, the Prince of Wales, carried with him a perpetual air of Hamlet-like melancholy.

Sarah Lyall, New York Times, 7 Nov. 2022 Some artist types may posture that clouds add texture, depth, and a note of majestic melancholy.

Craig Thomas, The New Yorker, 15 Oct. 2022 The tempo is slow, the piano sketches out the chords on the upbeat, and the melody carries a sense of gentle melancholy.

Mark Richardson, WSJ, 14 Nov. 2022 The Loneliest Time has the shiny electro-perk sheen of her 2015 classic Emotion, but more of the melancholy of 2019’s Dedicated.

Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 20 Oct. 2022 Some of Nesbit’s best stories possess the peculiar, faraway-so-close melancholy of being able to conjure the ghost of a loved one without being able to touch or speak to them, for fear of dissolving the apparition.

Jessica Winter, The New Yorker, 28 Sep. 2022 One is a deceptively upbeat song about the melancholy of change.

Alex Apatoff, Peoplemag, 31 Aug. 2022 Elba, who frequently projects toughness or villainy on-screen, gets to be fish-out-of-water funny with bouts of melancholy.

David Sims, The Atlantic, 27 Aug. 2022

Adjective

Here, melancholy and sadness serve as strong engines for social realities, yet pull at heartstrings for many Mexican families who commonly experience the perilous journey of crossing the border.

Marjua Estevez, refinery29.com, 15 Sep. 2022 The original cover evokes the living person of Mr. March and the feel of the novel, a mix of melancholy and hope.

John Warner, Chicago Tribune, 3 Sep. 2022 Everything about it feels like a 2022 hit, from the Tems sample to the melancholy-but-not-morose vibe to the overall efficiency, packing a whole lot of its stars into a just-over-three-minute runtime.

Billboard Staff, Billboard, 10 May 2022 Toying with these darker currents, John Wilson seems melancholy but not despairing.

Jason Zinoman, New York Times, 2 Nov. 2020 The Banshees of Inisherin, his first movie set in Ireland’s remote western islands (a location of many of his plays), is more of a melancholy ballad.

David Sims, The Atlantic, 22 Oct. 2022 But the next couple of takes are infused with a more melancholy silence.

Daniel D'addario, Variety, 4 Aug. 2022 But underneath that biting sense of humor is a deep melancholy, couched in a visceral meditation on mourning.

Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 31 Aug. 2021 After hanging up the telephone, Jennifer doubled over and wept until her dog, Rosie, approached to lick away the tears but not the melancholy.

Jack Thomas, BostonGlobe.com, 21 July 2021 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'melancholy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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

Time Traveler

The first known use of melancholy was in the 14th century

See more words from the same century