Word.ws English Dictionary

melodrame

melodrame 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 melodrame

pluralmelodrames

Origin of melodrame

From French mélodrame.

Questions about melodrame

What is melodrame the obsolete form of?
Melodrame is the obsolete form of melodrama.

Words near melodrame in the dictionary

  1. melodramatizes
  2. melodramatizing
  3. melodramaturge
  4. melodramaturges
  5. melodramaturgy
  6. melodrame
  7. melodrames
  8. melodrams
  9. melody
  10. melodyhorn
  11. melodyhorns

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: melodrame (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: “melodrame.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/melodrame. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.