as in sentimentalism
the state or quality of having an excess of tender feelings (as of love, nostalgia, or compassion)
the sentimentality of the story of star-crossed lovers only made it even more popular with moviegoers
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of sentimentality
So my knee-jerk reaction when Drag Race goes full bore into sentimentality is to roll my eyes a bit and hunker down for a segment that doesn’t speak to me.
—
Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 28 Mar. 2025
Sanders may pay tribute to the palette of Miyazaki and to classic Disney animation, but his nihilist reflex gives way to commercial sentimentality, reducing morality to manipulation.
—Armond White, National Review, 26 Feb. 2025
With that goal in mind, there is simply no room for sentimentality.
—Valentina Martinez, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 May 2025
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
See All Example Sentences for sentimentality
Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 28 Mar. 2025
Sanders may pay tribute to the palette of Miyazaki and to classic Disney animation, but his nihilist reflex gives way to commercial sentimentality, reducing morality to manipulation.
—Armond White, National Review, 26 Feb. 2025
With that goal in mind, there is simply no room for sentimentality.
—Valentina Martinez, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 May 2025
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
See All Example Sentences for sentimentality
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sentimentality
sentimentalism
Noun
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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
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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
“Sentimentality.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sentimentality. Accessed 13 Jun. 2025.
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