Words / M / General

melancholy

noun/ˈmɛlənkəli/

B2CEFR level
45/100Rarity: uncommon
LiteraryRegister

A deep, pensive, often gentle sadness.

A pleasant melancholy settled over the empty beach house.

Similar: sorrow, wistfulness

Origin: Greek melas 'black' + khole 'bile'.

Topic: Emotion in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

Get words like melancholy on your lock screen, a few a day, with review that makes them stick.

Download on the App Store Lexfall puts a new word on your home and lock screen through widgets, so you learn without opening an app. Free to download. After a free trial, a subscription unlocks every field. Built for iPhone, iOS 15.1 or later.
QR code that opens Lexfall on the App Store
On a computer?Scan with your iPhone camera.

More general words: Emotion