melancholy
/ˈmɛlənkəli/
"melancholy" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“melancholy” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #17,414 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #17,414
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
- 16
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Black bile, formerly thought to be one of the four "cardinal humours" of animal bodies.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | melancholy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmɛlənkəli/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #17,414 |
| Misspellings tracked | 16 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “melancholy” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for melancholy is 10 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmɛlənkəli/. Corpus data places it at rank #17,414 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 16 likely wrong-spelling variants for melancholy, with forms such as "emlancholy", "mealncholy", and "melacnholy". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "melancholic", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English malencolie, from Old French melancolie, from Ancient Greek μελαγχολία (melankholía, “atrabiliousness”), from μέλας (mélas), μελαν- (melan-, “black, dark, murky”) + χολή (kholḗ, “bile”). Compare the Latin ātra bīlis (“black bile”). The ad… The correct English form is melancholy, spelled M-E-L-A-N-C-H-O-L-Y.
Definition
- 1Black bile, formerly thought to be one of the four "cardinal humours" of animal bodies.
- 2Great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.
Etymology
From Middle English malencolie, from Old French melancolie, from Ancient Greek μελαγχολία (melankholía, “atrabiliousness”), from μέλας (mélas), μελαν- (melan-, “black, dark, murky”) + χολή (kholḗ, “bile”). Compare the Latin ātra bīlis (“black bile”). The adjectival use is a Middle English innovation, perhaps influenced by the suffixes -y, -ly. Doublet of melancholia.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: emlancholy,mealncholy,melacnholy,melanccholy,melanchholy,melanchloy,melancholly,melancholyy,melanchoyl,melancohly,melanhcoly,melanncholy,mellancholy,melnacholy,mleancholy,mmelancholy
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of melancholy - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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
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Using “melancholy”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-E-L-A-N-C-H-O-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmɛlənkəli/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “melancholic” - see the side-by-side comparison. melancholy vs melancholic
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.