Meaning & use
melancholia
Last updated
A deep, persistent state of sadness or gloom, historically used as a term for severe depression.
See it in a sentence
The poet's later work is haunted by a quiet melancholia.
Nineteenth-century physicians diagnosed patients with melancholia long before modern psychiatry existed.
A note on using this word
"Melancholia" is now mostly a literary or historical term; modern medicine uses "depression" instead, though "melancholic" survives as a description of temperament.
Words with a similar meaning
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Words with an opposite meaning
joyelation
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