overwrought prose
Melodramatic written style
Overwrought prose is writing that strains too hard for effect—overly emotional, excessively ornate, or laden with dramatic language that exceeds what the subject warrants.
The term is almost always critical, suggesting the writer has lost control or judgment: The novel's overwrought prose made every minor setback sound like a Greek tragedy.
Purple prose is a near synonym.
- purpleHue between crimson and azure
- floridExcessively ornate or ruddy
- melodramaticExaggeratedly emotional in expression
- breathlessLacking air, gasping
- feveredAbnormally hot, overheated
histrionic · bombastic · turgid · ornate · gushing · theatrical · heaving · bodice · bodice ripper · gothic · dark and stormy · Victorian · penny dreadful · adjectives · exclamation · exclamation marks · swoon · clutching
- bombastbombast, grandiloquence, magniloquence, pomposity, fustian
- writing flawstypos, spelling errors, plot hole, plot holes, cliche
- blatherbabble, balderdash, baloney, blarney, blather
- talkativenesstalkativeness, verbosity, wordiness, garrulity, loquacity
stylistic restraint
overwrought prosespare prose
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