🇩🇪German Source WordCode: DE

Melancholie

Pronunciation / Transliteration: meh-lan-kho-lee

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Melancholy/ˈmɛl.ən.kɒ.li/
nounCEFR B2 (Upper)Top #1500 frequency
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🇩🇪 Example Sentence in German:

"Er fühlte eine tiefe Melancholie."

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As noun
  1. 1

    A deep, pensive, and often long-lasting state of sadness or sorrow, typically with no obvious cause.

    "A quiet melancholy settled over the room as the sun began to set."
As adjective
  1. 1

    Expressing or affected by a deep, pensive sadness.

    "He played a melancholy tune on the old piano."

Thesaurus & Semantic Spectrum

Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

The word 'melancholy' originates from the Greek 'melankholía', which means 'black bile', a term used in ancient medicine to describe one of the four humors believed to affect temperament. It evolved through Latin and Middle English, retaining its association with deep sadness and reflective sorrow.

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