1. an unintentional shift from the sublime or serious to the trivial or ridiculous, creating an anticlimatic effect
Usage: literary criticism
2. insincere or excessive sentimentality
Usage: literary

Examples

• The epic poem suffered from bathos when it suddenly shifted from describing heroic battles to complaining about the weather.
• The movie’s attempt at drama fell into bathos with its overly melodramatic death scene.
• Critics accused the novel of bathos for its sentimental portrayal of poverty.
• The speech began powerfully but descended into bathos with clichéd platitudes.
• The playwright avoided bathos by maintaining consistent tone throughout the tragedy.
• What should have been a moving tribute became bathos due to poor word choice.