belletristic

variants also belle-lettristic
Definition of belletristicnext

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for belletristic
Adjective
  • Clearly, Villeneuve knows how to turn an impenetrable and famously difficult literary material into something truly cinematic and sweeping.
    Brent Lang, Variety, 15 Apr. 2026
  • There are also three novelists, because literary culture isn’t dead.
    Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 15 Apr. 2026
Adjective
  • These sound particularly good in Morgan’s mouth, with his non-actory, declamatory way of speaking.
    Television Critic, Los Angeles Times, 23 Feb. 2026
  • The cast features nonprofessional actors drawn from the area; their declamatory style of performance, along with Mateus’s hieratic images, endow the movie’s dramatic realism with the power of myth. 19.
    JUSTIN CHANG, New Yorker, 5 Dec. 2025
Adjective
  • But the English-speaking pontiff has risen as an influential American critic living in the Vatican, using his platform on the world stage as a moral contrast to the president's more bombastic rhetoric and aggressive use of executive power.
    Terry Collins, USA Today, 12 Apr. 2026
  • There was a lot of really bombastic language that happened throughout this war.
    Adam Harris, The Atlantic, 9 Apr. 2026
Adjective
  • When not identified early, this can potentially derail a student’s scholastic trajectory from the very first days of school.
    Sherri Helvie, New York Daily News, 19 Apr. 2026
  • Fugard lets his scholastic streak drive a good deal of the conversation.
    Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 17 Apr. 2026
Adjective
  • And the less said of the poorly mixed, pompous Machina, the better.
    Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 3 Mar. 2026
  • The pompous clergyman enters the life of the Bennet family, his distant cousins, with the assumption that, given his respectable position and benefactor, Lady Catherine De Bourgh, one of those daughters would be happy to marry him.
    Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 26 Feb. 2026
Adjective
  • There was Coppola’s over-the-top defense of his friend with a grandiloquent gesture (Tanen declined to sell).
    Michael O’Donnell, The Atlantic, 10 Feb. 2026
  • Reform—Within Reason Malthus aimed to puncture Godwin’s grandiloquent progressivism.
    Roy Scranton, JSTOR Daily, 18 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Alito’s humble, low-key approach was measured against Kennedy’s florid interrogations, a contrast that gained resonance after Alito’s wife, Martha-Ann, collapsed in tears at the hearing.
    Peter S. Canellos, The Atlantic, 10 Apr. 2026
  • It’s been a quarter century since the mostly Canadian supergroup New Pornographers sprang from the florid imagination of Carl Newman, a pop savant with an angel’s voice and switchblade wit.
    Elizabeth Nelson, Pitchfork, 8 Apr. 2026
Adjective
  • Unlike the stilted formality that can plague luxury properties, encounters feel genuine.
    Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 26 Feb. 2026
  • Interviewing public figures can be a very stilted experience.
    Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 21 Feb. 2026
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 22 Apr. 2026.

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