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dramatic

adjective

Simple meaning

Striking in appearance or effect.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

druhmatik

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

dɹəˈmætɪk

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Suitable to or characteristic of drama

    “A dramatic entrance in a swirling cape.”

  2. Pertaining to or characteristic of drama

  3. Striking in appearance or effect.

  4. informal

    Tending to exaggerate in order to get attention.

  5. Used of a singer or singing voice that is marked by power and expressiveness and a histrionic or theatrical style

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Suitable to or characteristic of drama

Used this way, dramatic is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Heard in a sentence
“A dramatic entrance in a swirling cape.”
Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use dramatic

  • “A dramatic entrance in a swirling cape.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Striking

dramatic effectdramatic formdramatic impact

Other combinations

dramatic artdramatic worksless dramaticdramatic actiondramatic literature

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • dramaticallyadverbDerived adverb

    In a very impressive manner.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • dramatic eventnounCompound term

    An episode that is turbulent or highly emotional.

  • dramatic compositionnounCompound term

    A play for performance on the stage or television or in a movie etc.

  • dramatic ironynounCompound term

    Irony that occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play.

  • dramatic artnounCompound term

    The art of writing and producing plays.

  • dramatic productionnounCompound term

    The act of performing a drama.

  • dramatic playnounCompound term

    A dramatic work intended for performance by actors on a stage.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: suitable to or characteristic of drama

melodramatic

Antonyms

Sense: suitable to or characteristic of drama

undramatic

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.