bathos
If something starts out serious and then turns trivial, that’s bathos. If you’re watching a serious drama about Poland’s transition to capitalism and it suddenly ends in a giddy car chase, you might remark on the film’s unexpected bathos.
The word bathos came into English in the 17th century from the Greek word bathos, which literally means “depth.” In the 18th century English poet Alexander Pope gave the word its current meaning of a descent from lofty to trite. We often use it for movies or books. Bathos is usually unintentional — which means you can laugh at it. Bathos can also be used more broadly for something that’s trite or overly sentimental.
-
a change from a serious subject to a disappointing onesynonyms: anticlimax
-
insincere pathossynonyms: mawkishnesstype of:sentimentalityextravagant or affected feeling or emotion
-
triteness or triviality of styletype of:expressive style, stylea way of expressing something (in language or art or music etc.) that is characteristic of a particular person or group of people or period
- MLA
- APA
- Chicago
Vocabulary lists containing bathos
You'll be able to express yourself with style once you learn these rhetorical devices and tropes. This vocabulary list covers a wide range of techniques used in formal speech and writing, from alliteration to zeugma.
If you want to understand the tools and techniques that great writers use, learn these literary devices and figures of speech.
If you want to understand the tools and techniques that great writers use, learn these literary devices and figures of speech. Review this vocabulary list and you'll be a master of metaphor, an expert on euphemism, and a pro at puns.