Word.ws English Dictionary

melancholious

melancholious adjective: melancholy.

Adjective

melancholious (comparative more melancholious, superlative most melancholious)

  1. (obsolete) melancholy
    • however flat and melancholious it [marriage] be1643, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce: […], London: […] T[homas] P[aine] and M[atthew] S[immons] […], →OCLC
    • O, a’ ye Bards on bonie Doon! / An’ vvha on Ayr your chanters tune! / Come, join the melancholious croon / O’ Robin’s reed! / His heart vvill never get aboon! / His Mailie’s dead!1793, Robert Burns, “Poor Mailie’s Elegy”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. […], 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793, →OCLC...

Forms of melancholious

comparativemore melancholious
superlativemost melancholious

Origin of melancholious

From Middle English malencolious, from Middle French melancolieus.

Words formed from melancholious

Questions about melancholious

What does melancholious mean?
Melancholious means melancholy.
What part of speech is melancholious?
Melancholious is an adjective.

Words near melancholious in the dictionary

  1. melancholics
  2. melancholie
  3. melancholies
  4. melancholily
  5. melancholiness
  6. melancholious
  7. melancholiously
  8. melancholish
  9. melancholist
  10. melancholists
  11. melancholize

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: melancholious (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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