emotionalism
Americannoun
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excessively emotional character.
the emotionalism of sentimental fiction.
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strong or excessive appeal to the emotions.
the emotionalism of patriotic propaganda.
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a tendency to display or respond with undue emotion, especially morbid emotion.
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unwarranted expression or display of emotion.
noun
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emotional nature, character, or quality
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a tendency to yield readily to the emotions
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an appeal to the emotions, esp an excessive appeal, as to an audience
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a doctrine stressing the value of deeply felt responses in ethics and the arts
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of emotionalism
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.
Reagan’s statements were similar to JFK’s in that they were rhetorically disciplined—no breast beating, no emotionalism, just the facts.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 23, 2026
Woo’s films, and this one is no exception, are also characterized by an over-the-top emotionalism that amplifies all feelings to mythological status.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 11, 2023
It is based not just on extreme authority and emotionalism, but a cultivation and worship of the Irrational.
From Salon • Apr. 20, 2023
This “hard realism,” as Mr. Pearlstein called it, broke decisively with the torrid emotionalism of the Abstract Expressionists, embracing an art that was, he asserted in a statement to ARTnews in 1967, “sharp, clear, unambiguous.”
From New York Times • Dec. 17, 2022
However few people can successfully demonstrate a principle in common ethics when their deliberation is festered with emotionalism.
From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
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.
