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
- melancholiac adjective
Etymology
Origin of melancholia
From Late Latin, dating back to 1685–95; melancholy
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
The glimpse of her life as a mother and her melancholia come into play later in the show’s run.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 13, 2023
While his absence has obvious resonance, if you were expecting some kind of Hamlet-style anguish or even a hint of misty melancholia about the now-absent symbolic father, forget it.
From New York Times • Mar. 2, 2023
Still, settings like this had always been for other people, not me, and I fought back some ancient fear and melancholia.
From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz
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.
