sentimentality
Overwrought emotional indulgence
Sentimentality is excessive or self-indulgent emotion, often at the expense of reason or genuine feeling.
A sentimental movie manipulates viewers into tears; sentimentality is the quality that makes it do so.
The word usually carries a note of criticism—suggesting emotions that are cheap, unearned, or wallowed in: The film's sentimentality undermined its serious subject matter.
Poultry fat or sentimentality
- schmaltzyExcessively and insincerely sentimental
- saccharineExaggeratedly sentimental
- maudlinExcessively tearful sentiment
- cloyingExcessively sweet or sentimental
sappy · sappiness · syrupy · gushy · mushy · overwrought · mawkish · treacly
Longing for the past
- wistfulnessTender sadness for absence
- reminiscenceRecalling past experiences
- longingIntense, persistent desire
- memoriesStored past experiences
yearning · homesickness · retrospection · reverie · bygone · yesteryear · recollection · pining
Pity-evoking quality
- heartfeltDeeply and sincerely meant
- touchingEvoking gentle emotion
- affectingEmotionally moving
- poignantEvoking keen emotion
emotive · emotionalism · heartstrings · sensibility · soulful · moving · stirring · tenderness
Tender sadness for absence
- pensiveQuietly, sadly thoughtful
- bittersweetWistful yet warm
- mournfulShowing or feeling grief
- plaintiveSounding sad, sorrowful
heartache · doleful · forlorn · somber · reflective · sorrow · gloom · melancholia
Warm liking or affection
- affectionWarm emotional attachment
- devotionDeep, loyal commitment
- cherishValue with deep affection
- endearmentAffectionate word or phrase
attachment · tenderness · sweetness · love · caring · nurture · adoration · doting
schmaltz
Poultry fat or sentimentality
- schmaltzyExcessively and insincerely sentimental
- saccharineExaggeratedly sentimental
- maudlinExcessively tearful sentiment
cloying · sappy · sappiness · syrupy · gushy · mushy · overwrought · mawkish · treacly · corny
nostalgia
Longing for the past
- wistfulnessTender sadness for absence
- reminiscenceRecalling past experiences
- longingIntense, persistent desire
memories · yearning · homesickness · retrospection · reverie · bygone · yesteryear · recollection · pining · sepia
pathos
Pity-evoking quality
poignant · emotive · emotionalism · heartstrings · sensibility · soulful · moving · stirring · tenderness · feeling
wistfulness
Tender sadness for absence
- pensiveQuietly, sadly thoughtful
- bittersweetWistful yet warm
- mournfulShowing or feeling grief
plaintive · heartache · doleful · forlorn · somber · reflective · sorrow · gloom · melancholia · rueful
fondness
Warm liking or affection
endearment · attachment · tenderness · sweetness · love · caring · nurture · adoration · doting · clinging
- long wordssupercalifragilisticexpialidocious, antidisestablishmentarianism, incomprehensibilities, counterrevolutionary, electroencephalograph
- emotionsjoy, anger, fear, sadness, love
- nostalgianostalgia, nostalgic, memories, memory, remember
- sentimental thingslove, memory, nostalgia, keepsake, heirloom
- emotional appealsguilt trip, flattery, nostalgia, outrage, scare tactics
- emotional poetrylove poems, sorrow, melancholy, heartbreak, longing
sentimentalitystoicism
Uncomplaining acceptance of difficulty
restraint · composure · self-control · impassivity · understatement
sentimentalityhard-heartedness
Lack of sympathy
callousness · coldness · cruelty · insensitivity · heartlessness
sentimentalitycynicism
Distrust of human sincerity
hardheadedness · pragmatism · antisentimental · realism · rationalism
sentimentalism, sentimentalize, sentimentalities, sentimentalized, sentimentalizing, sentimentalizes