melodrama

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

This is an unmodified, but possibly outdated, definition from Wiktionary and used here under the Creative Commons license. Wiktionary is a great resource. If you like it too, please donate to Wikimedia.

This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.