melodramatic

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“
I suppose that was why he was so--melodramatic," and she laughed a little forced laugh, and looked Geoffry straight in the face again He saw her embarrassment, and understood that she had been setting him right, and that it had cost her an effort to refer to the matter.

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. adjective Having the excitement and emotional appeal of melodrama: "a melodramatic account of two perilous days spent among the planters” (Frank O. Gatell).
  2. adjective Exaggeratedly emotional or sentimental; histrionic: "Accuse me, if you will, of melodramatic embroidery” (Erskine Childers).
  3. adjective Characterized by false pathos and sentiment.

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Examples (50)

  • While Peter's phrasing might be melodramatic, there was no denying his sincerity, or his anger. —  Mary Jo Putney - The Rake.htm
  • These can be melodramatic -- rape, pillage, wild beasts, childbirth, abandonment -- but Hegland's point is that life in its essence is melodramatic, once you flense it of the distractions of television and even Art. —  EBSCOhost
  • If there is a significant single heritage of The Outer Limits, it is a penchant for noisy, melodramatic, and sublimely satisfying morality plays. —  Omni: April 1995
  • Snatching her hand out of his would have seemed melodramatic, and panicky So she left it there, pasted a wry little smile on her mouth and threw him a gently mocking glance. —  Harlequin Presents 2151 - The Blackmailed Bridegroom by Miranda Lee
  • Miss Havisham and her protegee , Estella, whom she educates to be the scourge of men, belong to what may be called the melodramatic side of Dickens' art. —  Life of Charles Dickens
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (1)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = French mélodramatique = Spanish melodramatico; as melodrama(t-) + -ic.
 

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/mɛlədræˈmætɪk/
by American Heritage

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