bathetic
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bathetic
Explanation
Bathetic describes something that's overly sentimental, gushy, and worse yet — insincere. Soap operas are known for their bathetic emotionalism, because the characters cry and wail and scheme over the silliest things. Bathetic (the noun is bathos) comes from the Greek word for "depth" but not as in the ocean floor but as in "anticlimax" — a descent from the sublime to the ridiculous. Being bathetic is usually not done on purpose. A bathetic scene in a movie might have a character fall to her knees and scream, "Nooooooo!" because her son left his socks on the floor again. Don't confuse bathetic with pathetic, which means "pitiful."
Vocabulary lists containing bathetic
Sickly Sweet Treats: Sappy and Insincere Valentine Words
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "B"
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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.
Above this bathetic scene is the word “Rescate” — Rescue.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
All Kubrick did was make “The Shining” 10 times scarier and 75 percent less bathetic than the book.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 16, 2020
Not to denigrate the form, exactly, but the Conners’ iconic crochet-covered couch has never seemed so bathetic.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 6, 2018
Meanwhile, he piles on the drama in implausible and bathetic ways: a death row inmate who survives a botched execution; an autistic family member who unknowingly passes along deadly information; several seizures.
From New York Times ● Nov. 15, 2016
But, in its context, this isn’t delivered for comic or bathetic effect.
From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
