sentiment

American  

[sen-tuh-muhnt] / ˈsɛn tə mənt /

noun

sentiments plural

1. an attitude toward something; regard; opinion.

2. a mental feeling; emotion.

   a sentiment of pity.

3. refined or tender emotion; manifestation of the higher or more refined feelings.

4. exhibition or manifestation of feeling or sensibility, or appeal to the tender emotions, in literature, art, or music.

5. a thought influenced by or proceeding from feeling or emotion.

6. the thought or feeling intended to be conveyed by words, acts, or gestures as distinguished from the words, acts, or gestures themselves.

---

sentiment British  

/ ˈsɛntɪmənt /

noun

1. susceptibility to tender, delicate, or romantic emotion

   she has too much sentiment to be successful

2. (often plural) a thought, opinion, or attitude

3. exaggerated, overindulged, or mawkish feeling or emotion

4. an expression of response to deep feeling, esp in art or literature

5. a feeling, emotion, or awareness

   a sentiment of pity

6. a mental attitude modified or determined by feeling

   there is a strong revolutionary sentiment in his country

7. a feeling conveyed, or intended to be conveyed, in words

---

Usage

What are other ways to say sentiment?

A sentiment is a mental feeling or tender emotion, or a thought proceeding from feeling or emotion. How is it different from feeling, emotion, and passion? Find out on Thesaurus.com.

Synonym Usage

See opinion. Sentiment, sentimentality are terms for sensitiveness to emotional feelings. Sentiment is a sincere and refined sensibility, a tendency to be influenced by emotion rather than reason or fact: to appeal to sentiment. Sentimentality implies affected, excessive, sometimes mawkish sentiment: weak sentimentality.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• sentimentless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• sentiments
  plural

Etymology

Origin of sentiment

First recorded in 1325–75; from Medieval Latin sentīmentum, equivalent to Latin sentī(re) “to feel” + -mentum -ment; replacing Middle English sentement, from Old French, from Medieval Latin, as above

Explanation

Your opinion that most comedies are terrible and that you'd rather watch any other kind of movie could be described as your sentiment, or your attitude, about films. Sentiment means a view or opinion, but it can also mean an emotion. Maybe you prefer tragic movies because you enjoy the sentiment of sadness. This meaning of sentiment is taken to an extreme in yet another version of the word, meaning something like "overdone, exaggerated feelings, especially of sadness or nostalgia." An overly soppy tragedy is a good example of this kind of sentiment; it's the kind of film that might make you cringe instead of cry.

Example Sentences

Builder profit margins and sentiment in the industry have been stymied by a postpandemic rise in buying costs.

From Barron's • Jun. 26, 2026

RBC Capital Markets analyst Rishi Jaluria told MarketWatch that while sentiment is still very negative on software, “peak negativity may be in the rearview mirror.”

From MarketWatch • Jun. 26, 2026

He calls Strategy’s holdings not a “systemic risk” to bitcoin prices, but sentiment is still that a potential failure of the company could become a ‘contagion’ for them.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 26, 2026

But the possibility that demand persists through price increases and margins improve means investor sentiment could get a boost.

From Barron's • Jun. 26, 2026

“I know. It’s a good old tree. But sentiment doesn’t pay the plumber.”

From "Wishtree" by Katherine Applegate

Related Words

• attitude
• bias
• feeling
• idea
• opinion
• passion
• position
• tendency
• thought
• view