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anti-romantic

American  
[an-tee-roh-man-tik, an-tahy-] / ˌæn ti roʊˈmæn tɪk, ˌæn taɪ- /
Or antiromantic

adjective

  1. not involving love or romance.

    One way to ignore Valentine's Day is to do something on the anti-romantic end of the spectrum and watch some horror movies with other single friends.

  2. characterized by or portraying a view of love and relationships that is practical rather than idealized, and often transactional or circumstantial.

    The anti-romantic comedy-drama espouses a frank and scathing view of sexual relations.

  3. realistic; pragmatic; practical.

    It is still possible, even in an age so ferociously anti-romantic as our own, to write fantastic stories for adults.

    His anti-romantic poetry is a reaction to the real and immediate experience of war, depicted in all its scarring reality.

  4. Sometimes anti-Romantic in a style that is unlike or in opposition to the romantic style in music, art, literature, etc..

    The composer’s works incorporate experimentalism in a way that is decidedly anti-romantic.


Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of anti-romantic

anti- ( def. ) + romantic ( def. )

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

For now, they conspire to rule over a fractious post-revolutionary France, and also to transform this lavish palatial drama and sinewy war epic into a veritable anti-romantic comedy.

From Los Angeles Times Nov. 22, 2023

“But just as romance has to understand the potential for sadness, the resolutely anti-romantic Yang knows you need a dollop of romance if you want to break your readers’ hearts.”

From Seattle Times Sep. 8, 2021

In some ways, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s focus on spoofing rom-com clichés has always made it seem like an anti-romantic comedy.

From The Guardian Nov. 13, 2018

Notoriously self-flagellating, compulsively anti-romantic, “he was never truly comfortable unless he was seething with unhappiness at something.”

From New York Times Apr. 10, 2017

He saw, not the war so much as the international diplomacy that led up to the war, under the anti-romantic and satirical comic vision.

From Old and New Masters by Lynd, Robert

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