How to Use sentimentalism in a Sentence

sentimentalism

noun
  • But strip away the easy sentimentalism of the moment and you’re left with little else.
    — Sadanand Dhume, WSJ, 20 July 2017
  • But the inclusion of the sweet little blond girl struck me as a step in the direction of interspecies sentimentalism.
    — Dana Stevens, Slate Magazine, 11 July 2017
  • The melodies relate to Celtic music, and the people who live there share a love for sentimentalism and suffering in silence.
    — WSJ, 24 Oct. 2017
  • Nixon critics tend to associate his name not just with lying and abuse of power, but also with maudlin sentimentalism and elaborate excuse-making.
    — Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 4 Sep. 2020
  • Any other view of human nature is an exercise in magical thinking or sentimentalism.
    — James Ryerson, New York Times, 6 Mar. 2017
  • Two new books offer important corrections to such sentimentalism.
    — The Economist, 3 May 2018
  • Well, not too much treacle; anything that starts with James Earl Jones' narration is bound to have its own blend of gravitas and sentimentalism.
    — A.d. Amorosi, chicagotribune.com, 19 July 2019
  • The whole effectively functions as a scrapbook, but without the nostalgia or sentimentalism.
    — Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 Feb. 2022
  • That, too, informs the series’ pulsating sense of sentimentalism, says Brodesser-Akner.
    — Malina Saval, Variety, 5 Mar. 2023
  • The trouble is that, mixed up in all this, there is a heartfelt sentimentalism (understandable, given the circumstances) and political opportunism.
    — Madeleine Kearns, National Review, 14 Apr. 2020
  • Enriquez’s stories are historically aware and class-conscious, but her characters never avail themselves of sentimentalism or comfort.
    — Jennifer Szalai, New York Times, 3 Mar. 2017
  • Rather than fuzzy-wuzzy sentimentalism, that liminal space between objective reality and the netherworld is presented as a natural, if exceedingly rare, fact of life.
    — Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 21 Mar. 2023
  • Now, the difficulty is compassion can often lead a biographer or a historian into a sloppy sentimentalism, sometimes even into maybe what is worse, and that is a kind of guilty empathy and sympathy with your subject.
    — Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 24 Nov. 2021
  • With the rise of the middle class in the 17th and 18th centuries, sentimentalism became a movement that emphasized compassion as a desirable character trait, causing an increase in the expressions of sentiment.
    — cleveland, 10 Feb. 2020
  • The industry touches on ethics and economics, environmentalism and sentimentalism, science and sensationalism, often in surprising ways.
    — Mark Jenkins, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 Jan. 2023
  • The Academy historically goes for sentimentalism.
    — Joe Reid, Vulture, 4 Oct. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sentimentalism.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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