MELANCHOLY
Dictionary entry overview: What does melancholy mean?
• MELANCHOLY (noun)
The noun MELANCHOLY has 3 senses:
1. a feeling of thoughtful sadness
2. a constitutional tendency to be gloomy and depressed
3. a humor that was once believed to be secreted by the kidneys or spleen and to cause sadness and melancholy
Familiarity information: MELANCHOLY used as a noun is uncommon.
• MELANCHOLY (adjective)
The adjective MELANCHOLY has 2 senses:
1. characterized by or causing or expressing sadness
2. grave or even gloomy in character
Familiarity information: MELANCHOLY used as an adjective is rare.
Dictionary entry details
• MELANCHOLY (noun)
Meaning:
A feeling of thoughtful sadness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("melancholy" is a kind of...):
sadness; unhappiness (emotions experienced when not in a state of well-being)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "melancholy"):
gloom; gloominess; somberness; sombreness (a feeling of melancholy apprehension)
heavyheartedness (a feeling of dispirited melancholy)
brooding; pensiveness (persistent morbid meditation on a problem)
Weltschmerz; world-weariness (sadness on thinking about the evils of the world)
Meaning:
A constitutional tendency to be gloomy and depressed
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("melancholy" is a kind of...):
depression (a mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity)
Meaning:
A humor that was once believed to be secreted by the kidneys or spleen and to cause sadness and melancholy
Classified under:
Nouns denoting body parts
Synonyms:
black bile; melancholy
Hypernyms ("melancholy" is a kind of...):
bodily fluid; body fluid; humor; humour; liquid body substance (the liquid parts of the body)
• MELANCHOLY (adjective)
Meaning:
Characterized by or causing or expressing sadness
Synonyms:
melancholic; melancholy
Context examples:
growing more melancholy every hour / her melancholic smile / we acquainted him with the melancholy truth
Similar:
sad (experiencing or showing sorrow or unhappiness)
Meaning:
Grave or even gloomy in character
Synonyms:
somber; sombre; melancholy
Context examples:
solemn and mournful music / a suit of somber black / a somber mood
Similar:
cheerless; uncheerful (lacking cheer; depressing)
