SENTIMENTALITY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sentimentality mean? 

• SENTIMENTALITY (noun)
  The noun SENTIMENTALITY has 2 senses:

1. falsely emotional in a maudlin way

2. extravagant or affected feeling or emotion

  Familiarity information: SENTIMENTALITY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SENTIMENTALITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Falsely emotional in a maudlin way

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

drippiness; mawkishness; mushiness; sentimentality; sloppiness; soupiness

Hypernyms ("sentimentality" is a kind of...):

emotionalism; emotionality (emotional nature or quality)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sentimentality"):

corn (something sentimental or trite)

schmaltz; schmalz; shmaltz ((Yiddish) excessive sentimentality in art or music)

sentimentalism (a predilection for sentimentality)

Derivation:

sentimental (effusively or insincerely emotional)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Extravagant or affected feeling or emotion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Hypernyms ("sentimentality" is a kind of...):

sentiment (tender, romantic, or nostalgic feeling or emotion)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sentimentality"):

bathos; mawkishness (insincere pathos)

Derivation:

sentimental (given to or marked by sentiment or sentimentality)

 Context examples 

The pale roses Amy gave him were the sort that the Italians lay in dead hands, never in bridal wreaths, and for a moment he wondered if the omen was for Jo or for himself, but the next instant his American common sense got the better of sentimentality, and he laughed a heartier laugh than Amy had heard since he came.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Through all he said, even through his appalling sentimentality, I was reminded of something—an elusive rhythm, a fragment of lost words, that I had heard somewhere a long time ago.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)