melancholia
Americannoun
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a mental condition characterized by great depression of spirits and gloomy forebodings.
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Psychiatry. endogenous depression.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of melancholia
From Late Latin, dating back to 1685–95; see origin at melancholy
Explanation
Melancholia is a state of deep sadness. Your melancholia might make it hard to succeed in your career as a jolly birthday party clown. Melancholia is a name for a serious, diagnosable mental illness, but it can also mean more of a philosophical or aesthetic idea. You can call severe depression that requires a doctor's care melancholia. But you can also talk about the melancholia of your favorite piece of classical music or novel, if they're imbued with a somber moodiness or a deep sense of sorrow. The Greek root is melankolia, "sadness."
Vocabulary lists containing melancholia
Psychological Conditions and Disorders
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Psychology
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But he added, acidly: “there was little about melancholia that he didn’t know; there was little else that he did.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 20, 2026
And people looking for a dose of introspective melancholia at the end of the festival will have to choose between The National on the Other Stage, and James Blake, who plays in the Woodsies tent.
From BBC • Jun. 4, 2024
“McBride mixes American history with speculative fiction to dissect melancholia and political anxiety for young people who are living through uncertain times — in the future and today,” wrote the judges.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 20, 2024
The show’s title, “Black Sun,” comes from the title of the philosopher Julia Kristeva’s 1987 volume on melancholia.
From New York Times • Jun. 23, 2023
It may, however, simply have been another bout of deep blue melancholia, the kind that had assailed him off and on for years.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
