as in sentimentality
the state or quality of having an excess of tender feelings (as of love, nostalgia, or compassion)
a novel that wallows in bathos
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of bathos
So the question is why and how our moment of—pick your poison—late capitalism, permanent emergency, the death of the Anthropocene—has turned to an old form to describe the oxymoronic simultaneity of pathos and bathos, horror and the risible.
—
Eugenie Brinkema,
ARTnews.com,
14 June 2026
Still, all of the bathos in the world can’t keep this would-be blockbuster from being a prime example of le cinéma du bottom line.
—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
4 June 2026
This time round, though, an unfortunate silliness sometimes creeps in, where the film risks tipping over Shakespearean-size emotions into embarrassing bathos.
—
Miriam Balanescu,
IndieWire,
5 Mar. 2026
One needn’t labor over the 911’s descent into relative bathos over the decades, but instead simply embrace something closer to the original.
—
Robert Ross,
Robb Report,
2 Jan. 2026
The faces smile softly with their eyes closed, beatific in their bliss without falling into bathos.
—
Jerry Saltz,
Vulture,
19 Nov. 2025
At the same time, no one in metal was funnier, more in touch with his own bathos, more post–Spinal Tap, in a sense, than Ozzy, especially in his shambling-paterfamilias incarnation on MTV’s reality show The Osbournes.
—
James Parker,
The Atlantic,
12 Sep. 2025
Playing with comic bathos is a dangerous game when aiming for sincerity.
—
David Benedict,
Variety,
12 Sep. 2024
Eugenie Brinkema,
ARTnews.com,
14 June 2026
Still, all of the bathos in the world can’t keep this would-be blockbuster from being a prime example of le cinéma du bottom line.
—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
4 June 2026
This time round, though, an unfortunate silliness sometimes creeps in, where the film risks tipping over Shakespearean-size emotions into embarrassing bathos.
—
Miriam Balanescu,
IndieWire,
5 Mar. 2026
One needn’t labor over the 911’s descent into relative bathos over the decades, but instead simply embrace something closer to the original.
—
Robert Ross,
Robb Report,
2 Jan. 2026
The faces smile softly with their eyes closed, beatific in their bliss without falling into bathos.
—
Jerry Saltz,
Vulture,
19 Nov. 2025
At the same time, no one in metal was funnier, more in touch with his own bathos, more post–Spinal Tap, in a sense, than Ozzy, especially in his shambling-paterfamilias incarnation on MTV’s reality show The Osbournes.
—
James Parker,
The Atlantic,
12 Sep. 2025
Playing with comic bathos is a dangerous game when aiming for sincerity.
—
David Benedict,
Variety,
12 Sep. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bathos
Noun
-
Traditionally cynical and perceptive commentators—not to mention a lot of tired citizens—found themselves, in some accounts, overcome by an unexpected wave of patriotic sentimentality that washed away, at least for a moment, their gnawing doubts.
-
The second half, which dips into profundity and sentimentality while not always hitting the mark per Ryan, will be a harder sell for the audience that the film‘s opening sequences (and its marketing) attracts.
Noun
-
The Academy historically goes for sentimentalism.
-
McBride is less interested in exploring another motivation for saving locks of hair: the particular sentimentalism that made people cherish the hair of loved ones, especially those who had died, or of honored forebears.
Cite this Entry
“Bathos.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bathos. Accessed 25 Jun. 2026.
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