Dictionary
Find
in
Dictionary
Thesaurus
Translations

Click to move up the list of words
mela
melaena
Melaka
melaleuca
melamine
melan-
melancholia
melancholic
melancholy
melancholy air
Melanesia
Melanesian
mélange
melanin
melanism
melanite
melano-
Click to move down the list of words
Print Preview
See pronunciation key
Search for "melancho..." in all of MSN Encarta
E-mail this entry
Blog about this entry on MSN Spaces
Download the MSN Encarta Right-Click Dictionary

melancholy

mel·an·chol·y [ méllən kòllee ]


adjective 
Definition:
 
feeling or causing sadness: feeling or making somebody feel a thoughtful or gentle sadness



noun 
Definition:
 
1. pensive sadness: a thoughtful or gentle sadness

2. gloomy character: the gloomy character of somebody said to have an excess of black bile, one of the four bodily humors that were once thought to determine people's health and emotional state

3. medicine  ( archaic )
Same as  black bile


[14th century. Directly or via French mélancholie< late Latin melancholia< Greek melankholia< melan- "black" + kholē "bile"]

mel·an·chol·i·ly adverb
mel·an·chol·i·ness noun
Advertisement

Also on Encarta
Englishtown: Learn English online
Our Partners
Also on MSN
Encarta Message Boards (© Rubberball/Jupiterimages)
Shopping
© 2009 Microsoft