melancholy
Meanings
Plural: melancholies
Noun
- a feeling of thoughtful sadness
- a constitutional tendency to be gloomy and depressed
- a humor that was once believed to be secreted by the kidneys or spleen and to cause sadness and melancholy
- Black bile, formerly thought to be one of the four "cardinal humours" of animal bodies.
- Great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.
Adjective Satellite
- characterized by or causing or expressing sadness
- "growing more melancholy every hour"
- "we acquainted him with the melancholy truth"
- grave or even gloomy in character
Adj
- Affected with great sadness or depression.
Origin / 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”). 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.
Synonyms
atrabiliary, atrabilious, black bile, bleak, blitheless, blue, blueness, blues, bummed out, chapfallen, cheerless, chopfallen, comfortless, crestfallen, crestfallenness, cut up, damp, dark, dejected, dejection, depressed, depressing, depression, desolate, despondency, despondent, dire, disconsolate, disgruntled, disheartened, dismal, distress, doleful, dolefulness, dolesome, down, down in the dumps, down in the mouth, downcast, downhearted, downheartedness, downsome, drear, drearihead, drearisome, dreary, dreich, dull, elegiac, elegious, forlorn, forlornness, gayless, gloomsome, gloomy, glum, gray, grief, grief-stricken, grieving, grim, heartsick, heartsore, heavy-hearted, ill-being, inconsolable, infelicitous, infelicity, jawfallen, joyless, lachrymose, lack-laughter, lamentful, low, low-spirited, lugubrious, lumpish, melancholia, melancholic, melancholy, mirthless, miserable, misery, mishappiness, moody, mopey, morose, mourn, mournful, no joke, passionate, plaintive, prosternation, querulous, regret, rue, ruth, sad, saddened, sadness, saturnine, shattered, solemn, somber, sombre, sorrow, sorrow-ridden, sorrowful, sorrowfulness, sorrowsome, spiritless, sullen, sunless, threnetic, threnetical, triste, tristful, tristfulness, uncheerful, uncheery, unconsolable, undelight, unhappiness, unhappy, unlively, unmerry, wintry, wistful, woe, woebegone, woefare, woeful, wretched, wretchedness
Scrabble Score: 20
melancholy is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordmelancholy is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
melancholy is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary