melodrama
Americannoun
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a dramatic form that does not observe the laws of cause and effect and that exaggerates emotion and emphasizes plot or action at the expense of characterization.
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melodramatic behavior or events.
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(in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries) a romantic dramatic composition with music interspersed.
noun
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a play, film, etc, characterized by extravagant action and emotion
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(formerly) a romantic drama characterized by sensational incident, music, and song
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overdramatic emotion or behaviour
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a poem or part of a play or opera spoken to a musical accompaniment
Other Word Forms
- melodramatic adjective
- melodramatically adverb
- melodramatics plural noun
- melodramatist noun
- minimelodrama noun
Etymology
Origin of melodrama
1800–10; < French mélodrame, equivalent to mélo- (< Greek mélos song) + drame drama
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.
These patchwork visions have a restrained, contemplative air that carefully weighs the seriousness of their themes without ever dipping into melodrama or titillation.
The compact nature of the production, performed without intermission in just over 90 minutes, awkwardly exposes the melodrama that Ibsen took great pains to undercut.
From Los Angeles Times
He doesn’t resist the melodrama that’s inherent in the material, but he refuses to overindulge it.
From Los Angeles Times
The mixture of digitally warped instrumentation that emphasizes its artificiality and cinematic string arrangements that evoke the melodrama of old Hollywood is pleasingly jarring and disorienting.
“As Mac he avoids both melodrama and condescension, finding climaxes in each small step toward rehabilitation, each new responsibility shouldered.”
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.
