mindmap root((悲哀)) sadness is a general term that carries no suggestion of the cause, extent, or exact nature of low spirits: a feeling of ~ marked the farewell dinner. depression suggests a condition in which one feels let down, disheartened, despondent, or enervated: under a doctor's care for serious ~. melancholy suggests a mood of sad and serious but not wholly unpleasant pensiveness: old love letters that gave her cause for ~. melancholia applies to a disordered mental state characterized by settled deep depression: fell into a state of ~ after her husband's death. dejection implies a usually passing mood of one who is downcast or dispirited from a natural or logical cause: a struggling actor used to periods of ~. gloom applies to either the extreme sadness of the person afflicted by any of these moods or conditions OR the atmosphere or the effect on others created by one so afflicted: a universal ~ engulfed the devastated town.