bathos
Plural: bathoses
Noun
- An anticlimax creating a ludicrous or trivial effect.
- triteness or triviality of style
- insincere pathos
- a change from a serious subject to a disappointing one
- Overdone or treacly attempts to inspire pathos.
- Depth.
- Risible failure on the part of a work of art to properly affect its audience, particularly owing to
- Risible failure on the part of a work of art to properly affect its audience, particularly owing to:
- anticlimax: an abrupt transition in style or subject from high to low.
- Risible failure on the part of a work of art to properly affect its audience, particularly owing to:
- banality: unaffectingly clichéd or trite treatment of a topic.
- Risible failure on the part of a work of art to properly affect its audience, particularly owing to:
- immaturity: lack of serious treatment of a topic.
- Risible failure on the part of a work of art to properly affect its audience, particularly owing to:
- hyperbole: excessiveness
- The ironic use of such failure for satiric or humorous effect.
- A nadir, a low point particularly in one's career.
Examples
- After his grand setup for a bingo, his two-letter play was an absolute bathos.
Origin / Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek βάθος (báthos, “depth”). Employed ironically following Alexander Pope's Peri Bathous, lampooning various errors in contemporary writers.
Synonyms
anticlimax, mawkishness, banality, callowness, cheesiness, chewing the scenery, hamminess, immaturity, sappiness, treacliness, triteness, tweeness
Scrabble Score: 11
bathos: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordbathos: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
bathos: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary