Melodrama
noun
A work (like a play, movie, or book) that is overly dramatic or emotional.
The romance novel was a pure melodrama, with lots of crying and heartbreak.
Often appears as...
- sensational melodrama
- pure melodrama
Usage tips
Literary
noun
A situation or series of events that are exaggeratedly dramatic.
My teenage daughter's life is a constant melodrama, with a new crisis every week.
Often appears as...
- teenage melodrama
- unnecessary melodrama
noun
A work (like a play, movie, or book) that is overly dramatic or emotional.
The romance novel was a pure melodrama, with lots of crying and heartbreak.
Often appears as...
- sensational melodrama
- pure melodrama
Usage tips
Literary
noun
A situation or series of events that are exaggeratedly dramatic.
My teenage daughter's life is a constant melodrama, with a new crisis every week.
Often appears as...
- teenage melodrama
- unnecessary melodrama
Definition 1 of 2
Pro Tip 1/3Overly Emotional
Melodrama emphasizes extreme emotions or stereotypical characters to appeal to emotions.
The movie was a melodrama that had the audience in tears every few minutes.
Pro Tip 2/3Exaggerated Characters
Characters in a melodrama often have intensified personalities, like a villainous antagonist or a virtuous protagonist.
The hero in the melodrama was so good-hearted it felt unrealistic.
Pro Tip 3/3Simple Morality
Melodramas typically showcase clear moral conflicts with obvious good and evil sides.
In the melodrama, it was easy to cheer for the underdog against the corrupt king.
Pro Tip 1/3Overly Emotional
Melodrama emphasizes extreme emotions or stereotypical characters to appeal to emotions.
The movie was a melodrama that had the audience in tears every few minutes.
Pro Tip 2/3Exaggerated Characters
Characters in a melodrama often have intensified personalities, like a villainous antagonist or a virtuous protagonist.
The hero in the melodrama was so good-hearted it felt unrealistic.
Pro Tip 3/3Simple Morality
Melodramas typically showcase clear moral conflicts with obvious good and evil sides.
In the melodrama, it was easy to cheer for the underdog against the corrupt king.
Pro Tip 1/3Overly Emotional
Melodrama emphasizes extreme emotions or stereotypical characters to appeal to emotions.
The movie was a melodrama that had the audience in tears every few minutes.
Pro Tip 2/3Exaggerated Characters
Characters in a melodrama often have intensified personalities, like a villainous antagonist or a virtuous protagonist.
The hero in the melodrama was so good-hearted it felt unrealistic.
Pro Tip 3/3Simple Morality
Melodramas typically showcase clear moral conflicts with obvious good and evil sides.
In the melodrama, it was easy to cheer for the underdog against the corrupt king.
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Video examples
Snowy Egret Tug-of-War PIPE...
promise of mana falling from heaven the egrets seem as oblivious to the Gators as the Gators seem obsessed with the egrets it looks like a stand until a Darwinian melodrama plays itself out in
Video examples
Kabuki: The people's...
continues to delight audiences with the actors' elaborate makeup, extravagant and delicately embroidered costumes, and the unmistakable melodrama of the stories told on stage.
Video examples
Bill T. Jones PIPE The...
text to the sky Pele before and after to the groin 19th century melodrama eek a mouse
Video examples
Snowy Egret Tug-of-War PIPE...
promise of mana falling from heaven the egrets seem as oblivious to the Gators as the Gators seem obsessed with the egrets it looks like a stand until a Darwinian melodrama plays itself out in
Video examples
Kabuki: The people's...
continues to delight audiences with the actors' elaborate makeup, extravagant and delicately embroidered costumes, and the unmistakable melodrama of the stories told on stage.
Video examples
Bill T. Jones PIPE The...
text to the sky Pele before and after to the groin 19th century melodrama eek a mouse
Example 1 of 3
Quote examples
Bill Condon
American Director
I don't think 'Twilight' should be approached like 'Batman.' Because it is an invented kind of world, especially this one, I think it's got to be done with a sense of enjoyment to it I guess more than anything. So I never thought of anything as making fun of it, but kind of reveling in the melodrama of it. It's a melodrama.
Quote examples
Deepak Chopra
American Speaker
The world sometimes feels like an insane asylum. You can decide whether you want to be an inmate or pick up your visitor's badge. You can be in the world but not engage in the melodrama of it; you can become a spiritual being having a human experience thoroughly and fully.
Quote examples
Kenneth Lonergan
American Playwright
Teenagers all think their life is a movie. If you break up with someone or you have a fight, you walk around with movie scores playing in your head. You sort of see yourself suffering as you're suffering. There's a lot of melodrama attached to the real events of your life.
Quote examples
Stanley Tucci
American Actor
The constraints of melodrama can be a great blessing, because they demand that all the characters involved - as absurd and extreme as they may initially seem - must stay utterly rooted in their own reality, or the whole project collapses.
Quote examples
Song Joong-ki
South Korean Actor
I regard the 'Descendants' as a melodrama, and all scenes have been the trappings to increase the element of romance, I thought. In that sense, I am very satisfied and have great respect for the decisions of the writers.
Quote examples
Marti Noxon
American Writer
Ever since I worked on 'Buffy', it's always helped me to find a genre container for something, and I was like, 'Oh, this is where the movie melodrama has gone to. It's gone to YA.
Quote examples
Thomas Sowell
American Economist
All the political angst and moral melodrama about getting 'the rich' to pay 'their fair share' is part of a big charade. This is not about economics, it is about politics.
Quote examples
Richard Flanagan
Australian Novelist
We live in a material world, not a dramatic one. And truth resides not in melodrama, but in the precise measure of material things.
Quote examples
P. J. O'Rourke
American Comedian
The whole melodrama of the Middle East would be improved if amnesia were as common here as it is in melodramatic plots.
Quote examples
Jerome Charyn
American Author
I can say without melodrama or malice that Hollywood ruined my life.
Quote examples
Bill Condon
American Director
I don't think 'Twilight' should be approached like 'Batman.' Because it is an invented kind of world, especially this one, I think it's got to be done with a sense of enjoyment to it I guess more than anything. So I never thought of anything as making fun of it, but kind of reveling in the melodrama of it. It's a melodrama.
Quote examples
Deepak Chopra
American Speaker
The world sometimes feels like an insane asylum. You can decide whether you want to be an inmate or pick up your visitor's badge. You can be in the world but not engage in the melodrama of it; you can become a spiritual being having a human experience thoroughly and fully.
Quote examples
Kenneth Lonergan
American Playwright
Teenagers all think their life is a movie. If you break up with someone or you have a fight, you walk around with movie scores playing in your head. You sort of see yourself suffering as you're suffering. There's a lot of melodrama attached to the real events of your life.
Quote examples
Stanley Tucci
American Actor
The constraints of melodrama can be a great blessing, because they demand that all the characters involved - as absurd and extreme as they may initially seem - must stay utterly rooted in their own reality, or the whole project collapses.
Quote examples
Song Joong-ki
South Korean Actor
I regard the 'Descendants' as a melodrama, and all scenes have been the trappings to increase the element of romance, I thought. In that sense, I am very satisfied and have great respect for the decisions of the writers.
Quote examples
Marti Noxon
American Writer
Ever since I worked on 'Buffy', it's always helped me to find a genre container for something, and I was like, 'Oh, this is where the movie melodrama has gone to. It's gone to YA.
Quote examples
Thomas Sowell
American Economist
All the political angst and moral melodrama about getting 'the rich' to pay 'their fair share' is part of a big charade. This is not about economics, it is about politics.
Quote examples
Richard Flanagan
Australian Novelist
We live in a material world, not a dramatic one. And truth resides not in melodrama, but in the precise measure of material things.
Quote examples
P. J. O'Rourke
American Comedian
The whole melodrama of the Middle East would be improved if amnesia were as common here as it is in melodramatic plots.
Quote examples
Jerome Charyn
American Author
I can say without melodrama or malice that Hollywood ruined my life.
Example 1 of 10
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