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
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.
In “Melancholia,” the movie, the planet Melancholia crashes into Earth with the strains of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” blaring out the sensation.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 11, 2020
“I’m reminded of the film Melancholia in which depression is a sort of super power at the end of the world,” he recently wrote.
From Slate • Apr. 2, 2020
Since PBF, Gurewitch has shifted his focus to film and TV, and he published a Kickstarter book called Notes on a Case of Melancholia, Or: A Little Death that pays homage to Edward Gorey.
From The Verge • Feb. 14, 2020
Melancholia is more like that same path, cleared of underbrush, with only a stone or two to be aware of, that you navigate in the dusk to get home again.
From Salon • Jul. 7, 2018
Melancholia may be of the intellectual type or of the emotional type.
From Applied Psychology for Nurses by Porter, Mary F.
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.
