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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Recent Examples of bathos
Elsewhere, a black granite sarcophagus is meant to be an homage to AIDS victims; this, too, empties into bathos.
—
Jerry Saltz, Vulture, 14 June 2024
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
Glazer’s movie is a presentation of nearly unfathomable horrors by way of bathos, alluding to enormities in the form of minor daily inconveniences.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 14 Dec. 2023
His delicacy with the text lifts his scenes above the surrounding bathos like a kite.
—Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 19 June 2023
Arbus captured expressions of exuberance, delight in companionship, parental tenderness, self-love, piercing intelligence, ironic fatigue, suavity, bathos, aggression, perplexity and various expressions of curiosity about (or boredom with) the process of having one’s photograph taken.
—Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 26 Sep. 2022
Unlike the latter, our French super-doctor ends his life in bathos.
—Tunku Varadarajan, WSJ, 16 May 2022
But Ostermeier’s show turns the script from pathos to bathos.
—Helen Shaw, Vulture, 22 May 2022
Jerry Saltz, Vulture, 14 June 2024
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
Glazer’s movie is a presentation of nearly unfathomable horrors by way of bathos, alluding to enormities in the form of minor daily inconveniences.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 14 Dec. 2023
His delicacy with the text lifts his scenes above the surrounding bathos like a kite.
—Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 19 June 2023
Arbus captured expressions of exuberance, delight in companionship, parental tenderness, self-love, piercing intelligence, ironic fatigue, suavity, bathos, aggression, perplexity and various expressions of curiosity about (or boredom with) the process of having one’s photograph taken.
—Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 26 Sep. 2022
Unlike the latter, our French super-doctor ends his life in bathos.
—Tunku Varadarajan, WSJ, 16 May 2022
But Ostermeier’s show turns the script from pathos to bathos.
—Helen Shaw, Vulture, 22 May 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bathos
Noun
-
For a lot of Black dads, specifically those of a certain generation, life dealt them an unfairly tough hand, leaving them in a constant state of survival where feelings and sentimentality could be the difference between life and death.—
Ile-Ife Okantah,
Vulture,
17 Apr. 2025
-
Creating character is not among Murphy and Robertson’s strengths, and their pivot to awkward sentimentality throws the whole negotiation into disarray.—
Helen Shaw,
New Yorker,
17 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
The moment when Sean soothes Laszlo’s fears of losing his best human buddy by telling him that the fear of dying just makes every living moment more special — something else a centuries-old vampire wouldn’t understand — tiptoes right up to the edge of sentimentalism.—
Katie Rife,
Vulture,
19 Nov. 2024
-
King’s honeyed voiceover begins the film with a kind of sentimentalism about childhood and its innocence.—
Lisa Kennedy,
Variety,
4 July 2024
Cite this Entry
“Bathos.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bathos. Accessed 4 May. 2025.
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