melancholic.

Feeling or suggesting quiet, persistent sadness.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• melancholic mood
• melancholic passage

On the page

A melancholic passage followed the narrator's brief moment of hope.

Usage notes

Primary category: psychology / human behavior. Forms: Comparative more melancholic; superlative most melancholic when comparison is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: character, behavior. Commonness: moderately common.