Synonyms for melancholy
- adjective
- noun
Most common
Synonyms by meaning
Adjective
1. Melancholic — affected with great sadness or depression
melancholic, somber US, sombre UK, mournful, doleful, sorrowful, lugubrious, cheerless, moody, gloomy, plaintive, morose, wistful, disconsolate, depressing, despondent, dark, glum, downcast, sorry, pensive, depressed, dejected
Noun
1. Melancholia — great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature
melancholia, sadness, despondency, dejection, grief, depression, gloominess, sorrow, blues, gloom, desolation, misery, unhappiness, wretchedness, down-heartedness, infelicity, tristfulness, sorrowfulness, woe dated, prosternation dated, drearihead dated, mishappiness dated
Other
malaise, black bile, black colic, pensiveness, spleen dated
Definitions
- adj. 1
Affected with great sadness or depression.
Melancholy people don't talk much.
- n. 1
Great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.
Related words
- Word family
- melancholic melancholia
Forms
- Plural
- melancholies → melancholias, sadnesses, despondencies, dejections…
Choose the right word
Sorrow and grief are for definite cause; sadness and melancholy may arise from a vague sense of want or loss, from a low state of health, or other ill-defined cause; sadness may be momentary; melancholy is more enduring, and may become chronic.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- somber We heard somber hollow sounds from the cave.
- melancholic She creates verses each time she's melancholic.
- mournful Tom stood at the window with a mournful expression on his face.
- doleful My dog died yesterday, so I'm quite doleful.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| melancholy | rising | |
| somber | rising | |
| melancholic | rising | |
| mournful | rising | |
| doleful | rising |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 3 letters
- woe1
- 4 letters
- dark1, glum1
- 5 letters
- sorry2, blues1, grief1, moody2, gloom1
- 6 letters
- misery3, sorrow2, gloomy2, spleen1, somber2, sombre, morose2
- 7 letters
- sadness2, malaise2, wistful2, pensive2, doleful2
- 8 letters
- dejected3, mournful2, downcast2
- 9 letters
- depressed2, sorrowful3, plaintive2, dejection, cheerless
- 10 letters
- depression3, depressing3, desolation4, despondent3, lugubrious4, gloominess, infelicity, drearihead
- 11 letters
- unhappiness4, melancholic4, melancholia, despondency4, pensiveness3
- 12 letters
- disconsolate, wretchedness, tristfulness, mishappiness
- 13 letters
- sorrowfulness, prosternation
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (sorry2 = 2 syllables).