as in sentimentality
the state or quality of having an excess of tender feelings (as of love, nostalgia, or compassion)
the over-the-top sappiness of the verse on the Valentine's Day card
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Recent Examples of sappiness
Though the song’s premise has potential to veer into overly-sentimental sappiness, the song’s rich portrayal of key memories keeps it feeling like a vulnerable but respectful tribute.
—
Jessica Nicholson, Billboard, 22 Sep. 2025
The whole thing strikes a less successful balance between Gunn's dark comic side and his inherent sappiness than The Suicide Squad, the best Guardians of the Galaxy movie to not actually feature the Guardians of the Galaxy.
—A.a. Dowd, Chron, 28 Apr. 2023
The playful tone, however, oscillates between self-referential nods to the incongruity of people suddenly bursting into song and holiday-movie sentimentality, when either a more bare-knuckled commitment to satire or an unabashed embrace of its sappiness would be in order.
—Brian Lowry, CNN, 17 Nov. 2022
But if sappiness or shyness aren’t really the show’s thing, sensitivity is.
—Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 June 2022
The script, by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, is lovely but modest—a tale of Vogel’s personal redemption and self-improvement that could easily come off with the sappiness of a Hallmark special.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 21 Nov. 2019
As spoken by one character, that line sounds like del Toro’s credited allies the Coen Brothers, which exposes the snark at the base of del Toro’s left-wing sappiness.
—Armond White, National Review, 15 Dec. 2017
Jessica Nicholson, Billboard, 22 Sep. 2025
The whole thing strikes a less successful balance between Gunn's dark comic side and his inherent sappiness than The Suicide Squad, the best Guardians of the Galaxy movie to not actually feature the Guardians of the Galaxy.
—A.a. Dowd, Chron, 28 Apr. 2023
The playful tone, however, oscillates between self-referential nods to the incongruity of people suddenly bursting into song and holiday-movie sentimentality, when either a more bare-knuckled commitment to satire or an unabashed embrace of its sappiness would be in order.
—Brian Lowry, CNN, 17 Nov. 2022
But if sappiness or shyness aren’t really the show’s thing, sensitivity is.
—Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 June 2022
The script, by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, is lovely but modest—a tale of Vogel’s personal redemption and self-improvement that could easily come off with the sappiness of a Hallmark special.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 21 Nov. 2019
As spoken by one character, that line sounds like del Toro’s credited allies the Coen Brothers, which exposes the snark at the base of del Toro’s left-wing sappiness.
—Armond White, National Review, 15 Dec. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sappiness
Noun
-
Raven is ever attentive to the imaging of the West as a kind of battleground, where surveillance (and the camera’s inexorable links to the military apparatus) tussles with sentimentality in a centuries-long project from which the national psyche cannot seem to unlatch.—
Anne Reeve,
Artforum,
1 Oct. 2025
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Walsh and Sherman both recognized Lupino’s superior intellect and resistance to unearned sentimentality.—
Jim Hemphill,
IndieWire,
25 Sep. 2025
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
“Sappiness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sappiness. Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.
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