A literary noun for deep, often quiet sadness or melancholy. Not an everyday conversational word; more common in written or poetic contexts.
彼の顔には深い憂愁の色が浮かんでいた。
A look of deep melancholy was on his face.
その詩は人生の憂愁を静かに歌っている。
The poem quietly sings of the sorrows of life.
憂愁 is a formal, literary word for deep sorrow or melancholy, while 憂鬱 is the common word for feeling down or gloomy.
憂愁 (ゆうしゅう) is a perfect homophone of 優秀 but means 'melancholy, sorrow'—completely unrelated in meaning, so context and kanji matter.
Standard kanji spelling for this literary noun.
Rarely used kanji form; 幽 suggests a hidden or deep-seated sorrow.
Compound of 憂 (ゆう, 'sorrow, grief') and 愁 (しゅう, 'lament, melancholy'). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the combination has long been used in literary Chinese and Japanese to express a deep, often unspoken sadness.