Meanings
- pluralplural onlyExaggerated, overemotional behaviour, especially when calculated to elicit a response; melodramatics.
Dexter's vocals are competent enough: his timbre is thin and eternally teenaged, but he can go apeshit on the hiccupy histrionics like no one's business.
1999 August 26, Buddy Seigal, “Even Old Englishmen Still Get Wood”, in OC Weekly, retrieved 16 Jun 2009Synonyms: drama, melodrama, melodramatics, operatics
Synonyms & antonyms
nounExaggerated, overemotional behaviour, especially when calculated to elicit a response; melodramatics.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
From histrionic + -ics, see histrionic.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Catalan histrionisme
- histrionismeexaggerated, overemotional behaviour
Finnish tunteilu, huomionkipeys
- tunteiluexaggerated, overemotional behaviour
- huomionkipeysexaggerated, overemotional behaviour
French histrionisme, théâtralisme
- histrionismeexaggerated, overemotional behaviour
- théâtralismeexaggerated, overemotional behaviour
German theatralisches Getue
- theatralisches Getueexaggerated, overemotional behaviour
Polish afektacja, egzaltacja
- afektacjaexaggerated, overemotional behaviour
- egzaltacjaexaggerated, overemotional behaviour
Russian вы́ходка, сце́на
- вы́ходка (výxodka)exaggerated, overemotional behaviour
- сце́на (scéna)exaggerated, overemotional behaviour
Spanish histrionismo, teatralismo
- histrionismoexaggerated, overemotional behaviour
- teatralismoexaggerated, overemotional behaviour
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with histrionics
Anagrams
Cite this entry
histrionics. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/histrionics
“histrionics.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/histrionics. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “histrionics,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/histrionics.
Source: histrionics on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.