Main Entry: soap opera

Function: noun

Etymology: from its sponsorship by soap manufacturers

Date: 1939

1 a : a serial drama performed originally on a daytime radio or television program and chiefly characterized by tangled interpersonal situations and melodramatic or sentimental treatment b : a series of real-life events resembling a soap opera
2 : the melodrama and sentimentality characteristic of a soap opera <even cops need a little soap opera in their lives — Joseph Wambaugh>; also : something (as a novel) having such qualities

— soap–op·er·at·ic \ˈsōp-ˌä-pə-ˈra-tik\ adjective