belletristic

variants also belle-lettristic

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for belletristic
Adjective
  • In the first literary exploration of the 95-year-old actor-director’s career, Levy examines Eastwood’s cinematic milestones and personal flaws (and his old-school Libertarian beliefs) in equal measure.
    Seija Rankin, HollywoodReporter, 14 June 2025
  • Tomorrow Bookstore hosts a variety of literary, art and community events, including four book clubs, a weekly local author pop-up and more.
    American Booksellers Association, USA Today, 14 June 2025
Adjective
  • The music is stark, declamatory, and ironic in its use of gentler major-key harmonies for some of the darkest lines.
    Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 3 Feb. 2025
  • Such would-be scientific treatises in fact functioned more like manifestos, and decisively influenced Eliot and Ezra Pound’s generation to favor a poetics of the objective sensuous image over one of the dramatic declamatory mood.
    Benjamin Kunkel, The New Yorker, 9 Dec. 2024
Adjective
  • Advertising was bombastic, aggressive, loud and macho.
    Candace Oehler, Forbes.com, 27 May 2025
  • His bombastic claims aside, Trump inherited a solid economy that had grown steadily despite high interest rates imposed by the Federal Reserve to fight inflation.
    Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News, 30 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Thurmond and Newsom praised Clinton Elementary School and Compton Unified School District officials for their students’ scholastic achievements.
    Dave Mason, The Washington Examiner, 6 June 2025
  • Yorba, 18, said her awards, which included a $2,750 scholarship from the Ramona Garden Club, were based on her scholastic achievements and her involvement in extracurricular activities.
    Julie Gallant, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 May 2025
Adjective
  • At 11:30, as the simultaneously pompous and obsequious gate agent announces the passengers above gold status, the bit, already tilting toward insanity, leaves any attempt to portray a real airport behind and dives fully into Alice in Wonderland–level surrealism.
    John Roy, Vulture, 8 May 2025
  • Signaling a stark departure from tradition that, over the centuries, had ranged from formal to pompous, Pope Francis began teaching us, from day one, what the most genuine leadership looks like. Humble.
    Eli Amdur, Forbes.com, 26 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • The prose is florid and overwritten: While Martin uses normal language to methodically introduce an unease without even hinting at the supernatural, and drives the story through conflict among his characters, the AIs are all unsubtle.
    Kelsey Piper, Vox, 12 May 2025
  • And Woolf did this at a time where overly metaphorical writing, a style that once represented the pinnacle of masculine achievement in the 19th century (James, Melville, Dickens, Whitman), was feminized via epithets like purple, florid, flowery, and unrestrained so to be rendered defunct or passé.
    Ocean Vuong October 1, Literary Hub, 1 Oct. 2019
Adjective
  • The stilted writing and direction, sadly, leave a lot to be desired: Emotions are under-explored and the humor misfires, with a perfectly capable cast asked to deliver some truly clunky lines.
    Tomris Laffly, Variety, 9 June 2025
  • The two traded off lines throughout the always-incendiary new wave classic, and then Rodrigo joined Byrne in some of his signature on-stage moves — bending her knees, running in place, and generally looking his traditional combination of charmingly stilted and impossibly cool.
    Andrew Unterberger, Billboard, 8 June 2025
Adjective
  • There’s something dark budding beneath the flowery surface of NBC‘s Grosse Pointe Garden Society.
    Claire Franken, TVLine, 23 Feb. 2025
  • Kitty Fairy With tiny wings and a flowery crown, Kitty Fairy lives in the Fairy Tail Garden.
    Alex Vance, Parents, 13 Feb. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Belletristic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/belletristic. Accessed 18 Jun. 2025.

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