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
Harnessing Nordic melancholia to laugh at the misery of capitalist malaise, Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki makes movies about people who don’t say much but feel plenty.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 22, 2023
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.
