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
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of bathos
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
Both are perfectly capable of turning sequences that teeter on the edge of bathos into brawls.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 29 Oct. 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
But there is an inescapable bathos in the way Ronaldo glorifies these achievements.
—Rory Smith, New York Times, 31 May 2024
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
Both are perfectly capable of turning sequences that teeter on the edge of bathos into brawls.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 29 Oct. 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
But there is an inescapable bathos in the way Ronaldo glorifies these achievements.
—Rory Smith, New York Times, 31 May 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bathos
Noun
-
That sentimentality makes all this nastiness more satisfying.—
Eric Vilas-Boas,
Vulture,
18 Mar. 2026
-
This film refused to seek compassion through sentimentality.—
Matthew Carey,
Deadline,
15 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
The Academy historically goes for sentimentalism.—
Joe Reid,
Vulture,
4 Oct. 2025
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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.—
Margaret Talbot,
New Yorker,
21 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Bathos.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bathos. Accessed 30 Mar. 2026.
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