melancholic

adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"melancholic" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“melancholic” has 17 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #39,423. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#39,423
frequency rank, English
4,057
“M” headwords
17
tracked misspellings
1
confusable pair

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Filled with or affected by melancholy—great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.

Corpus desk

Index EN-melancholic · melancholic · English

melancholic · rank #39,423 · 17 variants · 1 confusable

  • FREQ-MID #39,423
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 17 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,057
  • PHOTO-FINISH McCord

Nearest frequency peer: McCord (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “melancholic”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “melancholic” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

melancholic vs melancholy
82% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for melancholic
PropertyValue
Headwordmelancholic
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters11
Frequency rank#39,423
Misspellings tracked17
Confusable pairs1
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “melancholic”

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).melancholiclands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “McCord” (#39,422), “Merlot” (#39,424), “McArthur” (#39,420). Among 4,057 “M” headwords, “melancholic” is #39,423. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 17 spelling variants around melancholic, anadjective. Corpus frequency is #39,423 among 4,057 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 17 likely wrong-spelling variants for melancholic, with forms such as "emlancholic", "mealncholic", and "melacnholic". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "melancholy", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin melancholicus, from Ancient Greek μελαγχολικός (melankholikós, “atrabilious, impulsive, of atrabilious or melancholic temperament”), from μελαγχολία (melankholía, “melancholy”). By surface analysis, melancholy + -ic. The correct English form is melancholic, spelled M-E-L-A-N-C-H-O-L-I-C.

Definition

  1. 1
    Filled with or affected by melancholy—great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.
  2. 2
    Pertaining to black bile (melancholy).
  3. 3
    Pertaining to the melancholic temperament or its associated personality traits.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how melancholic appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Just as the melancholic eye / Sees fleets and armies in the sky.
  2. But he was also a natural chronicler: one senses that, even as his schemes collapsed, this aesthetic Arab Quixote knew the stories would make great material for his witty, sharp, melancholic writings.

Etymology

From Latin melancholicus, from Ancient Greek μελαγχολικός (melankholikós, “atrabilious, impulsive, of atrabilious or melancholic temperament”), from μελαγχολία (melankholía, “melancholy”). By surface analysis, melancholy + -ic.

This word in other languages

melancólico(Español)mélancolique(Français)melancholisch(Deutsch)melancólico(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • emlancholic
  • mealncholic
  • melacnholic
  • melanccholic
  • melanchholic
  • melanchloic
  • melanchoilc
  • melancholci
  • melancholicc
  • melanchollic
  • melancohlic
  • melanhcolic
  • melanncholic
  • mellancholic
  • melnacholic
  • mleancholic
  • mmelancholic

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of melancholic - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

emlancholic2mealncholic2melacnholic2melanccholic1melanchholic1melanchloic2melanchoilc2melancholci2
Edit distance from "melancholic"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "melancholic"?
"melancholic" is spelled M-E-L-A-N-C-H-O-L-I-C.
What does "melancholic" mean?
As an adjective, "melancholic" means: Filled with or affected by melancholy—great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.
What words are commonly confused with "melancholic"?
"melancholic" is commonly confused with "melancholy". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What is the origin of the word "melancholic"?
From Latin melancholicus, from Ancient Greek μελαγχολικός (melankholikós, “atrabilious, impulsive, of atrabilious or melancholic temperament”), from μελαγχολία (melankholía, “melancholy”). By surface analysis, melancholy + -ic. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "melancholic", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

impropriety#39,363impersonate#39,362prototyping#39,494Hamiltonian#39,345

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (17 here; floor ≥5).

postscript17 variantsgentlemen's17 variantsFrancophone17 variantsdeterminism17 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list