Bathos
/ˈbeɪθɒs/ noun
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Overdone or treacly attempts to inspire pathos. uncountable, usually
"I like you more than I can say; but I'll not sink into a bathos of sentiment..."
- 2 a change from a serious subject to a disappointing one wordnet
- 3 A risible failure on the part of a work of art to properly affect its audience, particularly owing to uncountable, usually
"While a plain and direct Road is pav'd to their ὐψος, or sublime; no Track has been yet chalk'd out to arrive at our βάθος, or profund."
- 4 triteness or triviality of style wordnet
- 5 A risible failure on the part of a work of art to properly affect its audience, particularly owing to:; An anticlimax: an abrupt transition in style or subject from high to low. uncountable, usually
Show 6 more definitions
- 6 insincere pathos wordnet
- 7 A risible failure on the part of a work of art to properly affect its audience, particularly owing to:; A banality: an unaffectingly clichéd or trite treatment of a topic. uncountable, usually
- 8 A risible failure on the part of a work of art to properly affect its audience, particularly owing to:; Immaturity: a lack of serious treatment of a topic. uncountable, usually
- 9 A risible failure on the part of a work of art to properly affect its audience, particularly owing to:; A hyperbole: excessiveness. uncountable, usually
- 10 The ironic use of such failure for satiric or humorous effect. uncountable, usually
- 11 A nadir, a low point particularly in one's career. uncommon, uncountable, usually
"How meanly has he closed his inflated career! What a sample of the bathos will his history present!"
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"I like you more than I can say; but I'll not sink into a bathos of sentiment..."
Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek βάθος (báthos, “depth”). Employed ironically following Alexander Pope's Peri Bathous, lampooning various errors in contemporary writers.