soap opera

noun

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 (such as a novel) having such qualities

soap-operatic

ˈsōp-ˌä-pə-ˈra-tik 

adjective

Synonyms

• corn
• goo
• mush
• schmaltz
• schmalz
• sludge
• slush
• sorghum

Examples of soap opera in a Sentence

She loves to watch daytime soap operas.

the movie started out well, but quickly devolved into improbable soap opera

Recent Examples on the Web

Eight months later, his Days of Our Lives character, John Black, took his final bow on the June 2 episode of the soap opera he's starred on for 38 years. —Julia Moore, People.com, 3 June 2025

Despite having a name that (reasonably) invokes fear, the android at the center of the new sci-fi series is more interested in watching soap operas than making good on the promise of its name. —Shania Russell, EW.com, 23 May 2025

Customers come and go, street merchants stop in to peddle their wares and the hair braiders bicker over clients, laugh, dance, watch African soap operas on TV and work until their fingers bleed. —Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 May 2025

As history and the soap opera tradition of secret evil twins shows, the human mind tends to find something uncanny and disturbing about identical twins. —Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times, 4 May 2025

Word History

Etymology

from its sponsorship by soap manufacturers

First Known Use

1938, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

soap opera

noun

: a radio or television drama presented in a series of continuing stories and characters and intended to appeal to the emotions

Etymology

so called because the advertisers on these programs were usually soap manufacturers