Simple meaning
What does Melancholy mean?
a gentle, lasting sadness.
Dictionary definition
A quiet, thoughtful sadness that may last for a while.
Example sentences
Melancholy in a sentence
easy
Mia felt melancholy before the class game started.
medium
The story character seemed melancholy after the surprise news.
hard
Writers use words like melancholy to show mood and character changes clearly.
Synonyms
Words like Melancholy
sadnessSimilar meaning in many contexts.
gloomClose meaning with slightly different tone.
Antonyms
Opposite words
joyA helpful opposite in many situations.
cheerfulnessAnother useful contrast word.
Word family
Melancholy word family
Base word
melancholy
adjective
melancholic
Feeling melancholy.
Related words
Explore related words
Quick practice
Try Melancholy
Practice 1
What does melancholy mean?
MELANCHOLY means a gentle, lasting sadness.
Practice this skill
Practice vocabulary in WordHive
Use the dictionary to understand Melancholy, then move into short activities matched to the skills on this page.
Learning paths
- Define the Word Hive for word meanings.
- Synonym Search for word choice.
- Context Clue Challenge for sentence clues.
- Buzz Between for homophones and listening.
- Hive Builder for roots, prefixes, and suffixes.