Word.ws English Dictionary

melodram

melodram is the obsolete form of melodrama.

Meaning of melodrama

Noun

melodrama (countable and uncountable, plural melodramas or melodramata)

  1. (archaic, uncountable) A kind of drama having a musical accompaniment to intensify the effect of certain scenes.
  2. (countable) A drama abounding in romantic sentiment and agonizing situations, with a musical accompaniment only in parts which are especially thrilling or pathetic.
  3. (countable, opera) A passage in which the orchestra plays a somewhat descriptive accompaniment, while the actor speaks.
    • The grave-digging scene in Beethoven's “Fidelio” has much melodrama.
  4. (colloquial, figuratively, uncountable) Any situation or action which is blown out of proportion.

Forms of melodram

pluralmelodrams

Questions about melodram

What is melodram the obsolete form of?
Melodram is the obsolete form of melodrama.

Words near melodram in the dictionary

  1. melodized
  2. melodizer
  3. melodizers
  4. melodizes
  5. melodizing
  6. melodram
  7. melodrama
  8. melodramas
  9. melodramata
  10. melodramatic
  11. melodramatical

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: melodram (page history and authors); melodrama (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “melodram.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/melodram. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.