melodrama
Americannoun
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melodramas
plural
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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
Derived Forms
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melodramatistnoun
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minimelodramanoun
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melodramaticsplural noun
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melodramaticadjective
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melodramaticallyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of melodrama
1800–10; < French mélodrame, equivalent to mélo- (< Greek mélos song) + drame drama
Explanation
A melodrama is a show or story with overly dramatic characters and plot lines. Many people like to escape their own troubles by watching what the characters go through on a weekly television melodrama. A melodrama has a thrilling plot, with many extreme twists, suspense, and plenty of romance. Soap operas and popular films can often be described as melodramas, full of the tension and excitement that draws a viewer in. Anything but mellow, melodrama comes from the Greek word melos, song, and the French drame, drama — because the original melodramas of the early 1800s were dramatic plays that included songs and music.
Vocabulary lists containing melodrama
Drama Terminology
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Literary Genres - Advanced
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Reading: Literature - Drama - Middle School
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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.
See Examples For:
Inspired by the transient beauty of cherry blossoms, known in Japan as sakura — which is illustrated in their album cover, alongside a dark pegasus — much of the LP also hinges on melodrama.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
A peak of pop excess, Raye's second full-length album is a 73-minute melodrama, sprinkled with golden age Hollywood glamour, show-stopping ballads, tongue twisting wordplay and genre smashing handbrake turns.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
Ms. Hanssen, a screenwriter and radio host, has produced a gritty melodrama of familial love and hereditary tragedy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
Ann Blyth, who was nominated for an Academy Award for playing the wicked, manipulative daughter in the 1945 noir melodrama “Mildred Pierce,” has died at age 98.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 2026
Shawn and I auditioned for a melodrama at Worm Creek.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
Market participants have come to assume they will come out of these recurring melodramas intact.
From Barron's ● Jan. 24, 2026
Many things happen, never for too long; all kinds of maladies, medications and melodramas are involved.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 6, 2026
“Misericordia” subverts the long-held idea that gay coming-home movies equate to weepy melodramas.
From Salon ● Apr. 3, 2025
It’s also a tender tale about the perils and promises of starting over that owes as much to Mexico’s trite telenovelas as it does to its big-hearted melodramas.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2024
From the look of it, one of her favorite Israeli melodramas.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
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.
