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melancholy
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As a noun, melancholy means great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature. As an adjective, it means affected with great sadness or depression.
Meanings of melancholy
7 meaningsnoun
Great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.
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 melancholybody
Similar: black bile
Older and rare meanings (1)
historicalBlack bile, formerly thought to be one of the four "cardinal humours" of animal bodies.
adjective
literaryAffected with great sadness or depression.
“Melancholy people don't talk much.”
Characterized by or causing or expressing sadness
“growing more melancholy every hour”
“her melancholic smile”
“we acquainted him with the melancholy truth”
Similar: melancholic
Meanings from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0).