How to Use melancholy in a Sentence

melancholy

1 of 2 noun
  • What makes the piece so striking is the grandeur, and the huge melancholy of it.
    Jesse Hamlin, San Francisco Chronicle, 12 June 2018
  • Many of the customers were wearing masks; and there was a hint of melancholy in the air.
    Keith Pandolfi, The Enquirer, 19 Aug. 2021
  • There’s a deep melancholy to this episode that is hard to work through at first.
    Cate Young, Vulture, 27 May 2021
  • Guadagnino wanted the solitude and melancholy of the landscape to set the tone of the film.
    Harper's BAZAAR, 19 Jan. 2023
  • Her hair is pulled back, her arms crossed against the cold, her face melancholy.
    The New York Review of Books, 9 May 2019
  • Their works share a melancholy woven from chiaroscuro — the play of light and shadow.
    Cate McQuaid, BostonGlobe.com, 11 July 2023
  • There’s a sense of melancholy in all your work, from your shorts to your features.
    Rafael Motamayor, Vulture, 18 Apr. 2023
  • And the city welcomed it, wrestled a steady heat from my melancholy.
    Megan Fernandes, The New Yorker, 29 June 2020
  • Yet there’s hope among the broad strokes of fantasy and melancholy here.
    David Fear, Rolling Stone, 8 Sep. 2023
  • Building around him, only to lose him, sent waves of melancholy through the team.
    Jonathan Clegg, WSJ, 28 Nov. 2022
  • Once a cure for melancholy, the National now feel like a cause.
    James Robins, Vulture, 1 May 2023
  • But the nostalgia mixed with melancholy as some of the most revered figures showed the effects of age, and the game’s toll.
    Kalyn Kahler, SI.com, 11 June 2019
  • But even the masks that Ruiz and his relatives wore couldn’t hide their melancholy.
    Los Angeles Times, 31 May 2021
  • Despite the faint air of melancholy, a raucous good time was had during the two-hour show.
    Donna Freedman, Anchorage Daily News, 28 June 2019
  • Even so, Blackk has so much feeling in his eyes, filling the screen with his melancholy.
    Jourdain Searles, The Hollywood Reporter, 2 Feb. 2023
  • To live the goth lifestyle is to reject the mainstream and embrace a bit of darkness and melancholy.
    Kevin Jacobsen, EW.com, 21 Feb. 2024
  • The tempo is slow, the piano sketches out the chords on the upbeat, and the melody carries a sense of gentle melancholy.
    Mark Richardson, WSJ, 14 Nov. 2022
  • The film is laced with dry humor but also poignancy and notes of melancholy.
    David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 Feb. 2024
  • While very much a feel-good movie, there’s a wistful melancholy that ebbs and flows throughout as well.
    Christopher Arnott, courant.com, 10 Nov. 2021
  • But the Christmas–New Year’s setting adds a nice touch of melancholy to the proceedings.
    Bob Sassone, Vulture, 29 Nov. 2022
  • The actual song is pop, but there’s a real melancholy to it.
    Selma Fonseca, Billboard, 28 June 2019
  • The end of a film festival always fills me with an equal sense of relief and melancholy.
    Odie Henderson, BostonGlobe.com, 14 Sep. 2023
  • The knocking pulse of the song and airy background vocals belie its melancholy.
    Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAY, 23 June 2023
  • Listen to each proclamation of mirth and melancholy, love and hate.
    Merve Emre, The New Yorker, 29 Jan. 2024
  • Her bouts of melancholy are an old story with the family.
    Vivian Gornick, New York Times, 14 June 2018
  • At first, her most troubling moods were described by Ernie as bouts of melancholy.
    Dave Lieber, Dallas News, 16 Apr. 2021
  • The Irish melancholy will join me tomorrow, no less real than the food we’re blessed to be eating.
    Paul Daugherty, The Enquirer, 25 Nov. 2021
  • Even in the maternity ward, the sight of women cradling babies roused the old melancholy.
    Washington Post, 6 May 2022
  • But also like Death Cab, the band shows flashes of that early melancholy.
    Rory Appleton, The Indianapolis Star, 16 Mar. 2023
  • With happy days unclear again, here are the books to lift your spirits or match your melancholy.
    Vanityfair.com, VanityFair.com, 21 Feb. 2017
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melancholy

2 of 2 adjective
  • She was in a melancholy mood.
  • He became quiet and melancholy as the hours slowly passed.
  • And the mood, by all rights, should have been melancholy.
    Michael Silver, San Francisco Chronicle, 18 Sep. 2022
  • The lines of the song had always followed the same slow, melancholy arcs.
    Caleb Crain, The New Yorker, 4 Dec. 2023
  • The pied piper of lost souls, the melancholy maestro.. tonite was your night.
    Jessica Nicholson, Billboard, 4 Apr. 2023
  • The light is warm, and bright but melancholy music plays.
    Siobhan Burke, New York Times, 23 Oct. 2023
  • But that’s not the end of the story, which has a melancholy coda in Greece.
    Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 May 2017
  • Much like the myth, Avalon is full of grandeur as much as melancholy.
    Jill Krajewski, SPIN, 8 June 2022
  • While the kids play, the grown-ups brood and fret, and those nearing the end of life grow melancholy or bitter.
    Terrence Rafferty, The Atlantic, 8 Apr. 2020
  • The mood is melancholy, but the music is going strange places.
    Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 12 Oct. 2022
  • But the melancholy grew with the projections and music.
    Los Angeles Times, 26 July 2021
  • The overall effect is a more melancholy read of Mitchell's lyrics.
    Ed Masley, The Arizona Republic, 27 June 2023
  • Need to get in the melancholy mood before tickets go on sale?
    oregonlive, 23 Jan. 2023
  • This time of year gets kind of melancholy for me because, is this my last year?
    Mike Anthony, courant.com, 13 May 2018
  • Some melancholy—not to say fearful—thoughts crop up in my head.
    Ian Parker, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2019
  • There’s a melancholy in his face that Bradley echoes in her own images.
    Ismail Muhammad, New York Times, 6 Oct. 2020
  • How, then, to account for the melancholy that veils the whole endeavor?
    Anthony Lan, The New Yorker, 16 July 2021
  • So melancholy now, on the lonely gray seas, is tempered with sight of shore.
    Patricia Highsmith, The New Yorker, 27 Sep. 2021
  • But Soccer Mommy’s melancholy lyrics hit you right in the gut.
    Troy L. Smith, cleveland, 6 Dec. 2020
  • Is anything more romantic and melancholy than a walk in the rain in Paris?
    Kat Bein, Billboard, 14 Mar. 2018
  • The whale was even dubbed wayward, a melancholy word if there ever was one.
    Matthew T. Hall, sandiegouniontribune.com, 12 Mar. 2018
  • Her words are a mix of melancholy and matter-of-factness.
    USA Today, 12 Mar. 2021
  • Both of their sessions were melancholy, in stark contrast to the upbeat mood in the Dodgers’ clubhouse down the hall.
    Brian Dulik, BostonGlobe.com, 23 Aug. 2023
  • But the sprightly nature of the tunes and arrangements means the melancholy of the words is only part of the story.
    Mark Richardson, WSJ, 5 Sep. 2022
  • With the space closing, his final show there was a mix of deadpan and melancholy notes.
    Photographs By Nina Westervelt, New York Times, 31 Dec. 2022
  • But the tone the director sets here is more melancholy than abrasive.
    Justin Chang, latimes.com, 15 Feb. 2018
  • And the general mood of melancholy that has settled over the country like a thick fog.
    Kenzie Bryant, vanityfair.com, 11 Sep. 2017
  • Or does the genre seem to demand a certain melancholy, an air of unease?
    Polly Rosenwaike, San Francisco Chronicle, 3 Nov. 2017
  • But the next couple of takes are infused with a more melancholy silence.
    Daniel D'addario, Variety, 4 Aug. 2022
  • And the movie, despite being filled with broad slapstick, ends on a melancholy note.
    Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle, 25 Jan. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'melancholy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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