sentimental

[sen-tuh-men-tl]

adjective

1. expressive of or appealing to sentiment, especially the tender emotions and feelings, as love, pity, or nostalgia.

   a sentimental song.

   Synonyms: bathetic, maudlin, nostalgic, tender, romantic
   Antonyms: dispassionate

2. pertaining to or dependent on sentiment.

   We kept the old photograph for purely sentimental reasons.

3. weakly emotional; mawkishly susceptible or tender.

   the sentimental Victorians.

4. characterized by or showing sentiment or refined feeling.

   Antonyms: dispassionate

sentimental

/ ˌsɛntɪˈmɛntəl /

adjective

1. tending to indulge the emotions excessively

2. making a direct appeal to the emotions, esp to romantic feelings

3. relating to or characterized by sentiment

Other Word Forms

• sentimentally adverb
• antisentimental adjective
• antisentimentally adverb
• hypersentimental adjective
• hypersentimentally adverb
• intersentimental adjective
• oversentimental adjective
• oversentimentally adverb
• quasi-sentimental adjective
• quasi-sentimentally adverb
• semisentimental adjective
• semisentimentally adverb
• supersentimental adjective
• supersentimentally adverb
• unsentimental adjective
• unsentimentally adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of sentimental¹

First recorded in 1740–50; sentiment + -al ¹

Example Sentences

He wrote a sentimental open letter, “Dear Basketball,” as a retirement announcement, and one of his first post-game projects was turning that text into a short film.

From Los Angeles Times

Det Con Jamie White said the monetary value of the theft was "enormous" but "the sentimental value was priceless" as some of the accessories were treasured family heirlooms.

From BBC

Despite their hopes that some of their possessions may have been saved, most sentimental items were burnt including the rope tie from their wedding ceremony in October last year, Lucy's wedding dress and wedding jewellery.

From BBC

For much of its audience, My Chem’s proudly sentimental music contains the stuff of identity — one reason thousands showed up to Dodger Stadium wearing elaborate outfits inspired by the band’s detailed iconography.

From Los Angeles Times

“She also has this range of being able to do really sentimental, sincere scenes and also being incredibly funny and absurd and big.”

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• affectionate 
• corny 
• dreamy 
• idealistic 
• maudlin 
• mushy 
• nostalgic 
• passionate 
• saccharine 
• sappy 
• silly 
• sweet 
• tender 
• touching 
• weepy 

When To Use

What does sentimental mean?

Sentimental means expressing, appealing to, or being moved by sensitive or tender emotions, such as love, nostalgia, or pity.The state or quality of being sentimental is sentimentality. Sentimental, sentimentality, and other related words (like sentimentalism, which can be used as a synonym of sentimentality) are based on the sense of the word sentiment that refers to sensitive or tender emotions, sensitivity to such emotions, or appeal to such emotions.Such terms are especially used to imply that these emotions are exaggerated or overindulged. Sometimes, they imply that these emotions get in the way of thinking logically or being realistic.People are sometimes criticized for being overly sentimental, as in Stop being so sentimental and looking at things through rose-colored glasses, instead of seeing what they’re really like.  These kinds of criticisms are especially common in the context of art. For example, a book or film may be criticized as being overly sentimental in dealing with a historical event. This implies that it portrays the event in an idealized, simplistic, or nostalgic way instead of depicting it accurately and dealing with what really happened.Such works might also be described as melodramatic. When they’re tearfully or weakly emotional, they might be described as maudlin, mawkish, sappy, or weepy. Hallmark holiday movies are known for being sentimental.Things that are kept due to being associated with fond memories or loved ones are said to have sentimental value.Example: He’s so sentimental that he keeps all of his childhood toys.