melodramatic

US /ˌmɛlədrəˈmætɪk/ UK /ˌmɛlədrəˈmatɪk/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
exaggeratedly emotional or sentimental in a theatrical way

Her melodramatic sigh made the whole room turn to look.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · exaggeratedly emotional or... theatrical histrionic sensational overwrought exaggerated sentimental stagyoverdramatic

Opposites

understated restrainedsubduedmatter-of-fact

Word family

Forms melodramatically

Derived forms melodramatically

Related forms melodrama drama dramatic

Etymology

From melodrama (originally a stage play with music, from Greek melos 'song' + French drame 'drama') + -atic. The Greek drama derives from dran 'to do, act'.

melos Ancient Greek dran Ancient Greek

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# melodramatic

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ˌmɛlədrəˈmætɪk/
**IPA (UK):** /ˌmɛlədrəˈmatɪk/

## Meanings
1. exaggeratedly emotional or sentimental in a theatrical way

## Examples
- Her melodramatic sigh made the whole room turn to look.

## Synonyms
- theatrical
- histrionic
- sensational
- overwrought
- exaggerated
- sentimental
- stagy
- overdramatic

## Antonyms
- understated
- restrained
- subdued
- matter-of-fact

## Derived Forms
- melodramatically

## Related Forms
- melodrama
- drama
- dramatic

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: melos
- Root: dran

## Etymology
From melodrama (originally a stage play with music, from Greek melos 'song' + French drame 'drama') + -atic. The Greek drama derives from dran 'to do, act'.

## AI Etymology
Melodramatic comes from melodrama (originally a stage play with music, from Greek melos 'song' + French drame 'drama') + -atic. The Greek drama derives from dran 'to do, act'. The etymological trail includes Ancient Greek melos, Ancient Greek dran. The same word family includes melodramatically, melodrama, drama, dramatic. Its current adjective use means "exaggeratedly emotional or sentimental in a theatrical way".

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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