Meanings
comparative more melodramatic · superlative most melodramatic · alternative melo-dramatic
- Of or pertaining to melodrama; like or suitable to a melodrama; unnatural in situation or action.
- Exaggeratedly emotional or sentimental.
She wrote him a melodramatic letter, threatening to kill herself.
2 more examples
Dearest Eloise,— There is one little and perhaps insignificant French cake, which I feel certain would soon become a favourite in the cottage, more particularly amongst its juvenile inhabitants. It is the famed galette, the melodramatic food of the gamins, galopins, mechanics, and semi-artists of France.
1854, Alexis [Benoît] Soyer, A Shilling Cookery for the People: Embracing an Entirely New System of Plain Cookery and Domestic Economy, London, New York, N.Y.: George Routledge & Co., →OCLC, page 125In it, the officer insisted he did not depart from NCND and gave a melodramatic account of my "long pauses" as I said I needed the story, before I eventually became cooperative and said I had "seen the light".
2025 July 6, Daniel De Simone, “How MI5 piled falsehood on falsehood in court in the case of a spy who abused women”, in BBC News, retrieved 06 Jul 2025
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivehaving the excitement and emotional appeal of melodrama
adjectivecharacteristic of acting or a stage performance; often affected
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
From melodrama + -tic. Modelled after dramatic.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian мелодраматичен
- мелодраматичен (melodramatičen)exaggeratedly emotional
Catalan melodramàtic, melodramàtic
- melodramàticof or pertaining to melodrama
- melodramàticexaggeratedly emotional
Czech melodramatický
- melodramatickýof or pertaining to melodrama
Finnish melodramaattinen, pateettinen
- melodramaattinenof or pertaining to melodrama
- pateettinenexaggeratedly emotional
- melodramaattinenexaggeratedly emotional
French mélodramatique
- mélodramatiqueof or pertaining to melodrama
German melodramatisch
- melodramatischof or pertaining to melodrama
Greek μελοδραματικός, μελοδραματικός
- μελοδραματικός (melodramatikós)of or pertaining to melodrama
- μελοδραματικός (melodramatikós)exaggeratedly emotional
Italian melodrammatico, patetico
- melodrammaticoof or pertaining to melodrama
- pateticoexaggeratedly emotional
- melodrammaticoexaggeratedly emotional
Portuguese melodramático, melodramático
- melodramáticoof or pertaining to melodrama
- melodramáticoexaggeratedly emotional
Romanian melodramatic
- melodramaticof or pertaining to melodrama
Russian мелодрамати́ческий, мелодрамати́ческий
- мелодрамати́ческий (melodramatíčeskij)of or pertaining to melodrama
- мелодрамати́ческий (melodramatíčeskij)exaggeratedly emotional
- напы́щенный (napýščennyj)exaggeratedly emotional
Spanish melodramático, melodramático
- melodramáticoof or pertaining to melodrama
- melodramáticoexaggeratedly emotional
Swedish melodramatisk
- melodramatiskof or pertaining to melodrama
Tagalog mahimigdula
- mahimigdulaof or pertaining to melodrama
Turkish melodramatik
- melodramatikof or pertaining to melodrama
Welsh melodramatig, melodramataidd
- melodramatigof or pertaining to melodrama
- melodramataiddof or pertaining to melodrama
- melodramataiddexaggeratedly emotional
Cite this entry
melodramatic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/melodramatic
“melodramatic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/melodramatic. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “melodramatic,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/melodramatic.
Source: melodramatic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.