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🇵🇹Portuguese Source WordCode: PT

melancolia

Pronunciation / Transliteration: me-lan-ko-lee-a

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Melancholia/ˌmɛl.ənˈkoʊ.li.ə/
nounCEFR C2 (Proficient)Top #14500 frequency
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🇵🇹 Example Sentence in Portuguese:

"O poeta olhava para a janela com uma profunda melancolia."

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As noun
  1. 1

    A deep, pensive, and long-lasting state of sadness or depression, often without an obvious cause.

    "A subtle sense of melancholia settled over the room as the autumn rain began to fall."
  2. 2

    A mental condition characterized by severe depression, typically including characteristic psychomotor disturbances.

    "Historical medical texts often diagnosed the patient's severe withdrawal as a form of melancholia."
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Thesaurus & Semantic Spectrum

Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

Derived from the ancient Greek 'melankholia', combining 'melas' (black) and 'khole' (bile), reflecting the ancient humoral theory that excess black bile caused sadness. Entering English via Late Latin and Old French in the late 14th century, it initially denoted clinical depression before evolving into a broader literary and psychological term for a deep, pensive sadness.

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