melodramatic

UK/ˌmɛl.ə.dɹəˈmæt.ɪk/

adjectiveC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,620 of 15,258neutral

Melodramatic means exaggerated and full of overdone emotion. A reaction three sizes too big for what happened.

The word comes from melodrama, a kind of nineteenth-century play with heightened emotion and a musical accompaniment, which is where the melo comes from. Calling somebody melodramatic is a real dismissal, since it says the feeling is a performance. It is a favourite word for talking about teenagers and about opera. The noun melodrama survives both as the theatrical form and as the criticism.

Definitions of melodramatic

1adjectivemelodramaticExaggerated in emotion or behaviour.C1
“There is no need to be so melodramatic about a late train.”

Where it comes from

From melodrama + tic. Modelled after dramatic.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 6 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

melodramatic in the wild

Shinpa (also rendered shimpa) is a modern form of theater in Japan usually featuring melodramatic stories, contrasted with the more traditional kabuki style.
Shinpa
The film's louche settings and melodramatic storyline proved popular with audiences, and its success spawned two sequels, The Triumph of the Rat and The Return of the Rat.
The Rat (1925 film)
The film is a melodramatic murder mystery set in the Victorian era and was adapted from a stage play by William Dinner and William Morum.
The Late Edwina Black
Discarded Lovers is a 1932 American Pre-Code "melodramatic murder-mystery" film directed by Fred C.
Discarded Lovers
According to Bruce Eder of Allmusic, "the song descends into an even more emotionally melodramatic mood than "And the Sun Will Shine"".
Really and Sincerely

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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