Definition

1. Noun:
   • Excessive or exaggerated emotionalism: The quality of being overly emotional, especially in a way that seems exaggerated, affected, or insincere.
   • Maudlin or mawkish feeling: A tendency to express or indulge in tender, nostalgic, or sad emotions in a way that is considered weak, self-indulgent, or lacking in depth.

Usage

• Sentimentality describes an overabundance of superficial or shallow emotion, often in art, writing, or personal expression. It is frequently used in a critical or negative sense to imply that the emotion is not genuine or is excessive to the point of being cloying.
• It is often contrasted with genuine, deep, or controlled feeling.

Examples

• The movie's ending was criticized for its heavy sentimentality, relying on clichés to make the audience cry.
• He avoided sentimentality in his speech, choosing instead to present the facts with quiet dignity.
• Her diary was full of a naive sentimentality about her childhood.

Advanced Usage

• "To lapse into sentimentality": To fall into an overly emotional or mawkish way of expressing oneself.
  • The author's description of the reunion lapsed into pure sentimentality.
• "Cloying sentimentality": An especially excessive and sickly-sweet type of emotional display.
  • The greeting card was filled with cloying sentimentality.

Variants and Related Words

• Sentimental (adj): Characterized by, exhibiting, or prone to sentimentality.
  • He gets sentimental when he looks at old photographs.
• Sentimentalist (n): A person who is excessively sentimental.
• Sentimentalize (v): To treat, consider, or present in a sentimental way.
  • The film sentimentalizes the hardships of war.

Synonyms

• Mawkishness: Excessive sentimentality, often to a sickening degree.
• Maudlinism: Tearful or weakly emotional sentimentality, often due to drunkenness.
• Schmaltz (informal): Excessive sentimentality, especially in music or writing.
• Corniness (informal): Trite, banal, or overly sentimental quality.

Antonyms

• Hard-heartedness: Lack of feeling or sympathy.
• Sobriety: Seriousness, gravity, or moderation in expression.
• Stoicism: The endurance of pain or hardship without the display of feelings.

Idioms and Phrases

• "A wave of sentimentality": A sudden, often temporary, feeling of exaggerated emotion.
  • A wave of sentimentality came over her as she cleaned out her old room.
• "To be prone to sentimentality": To have a tendency to be overly sentimental.
  • He is prone to sentimentality when talking about his school days.

Noun

1. extravagant or affected feeling or emotion
2. falsely emotional in a maudlin way