sentiment
/ˈsɛntɪm(ə)nt
/noun
1A view or opinion that is held or expressed: I agree with your sentiments regarding the road bridge...
- City officials around the world echo the sentiment, according to Public Works Magazine.
- Our idea echoes your sentiments in the editorial: Learn more, to prepare for the future.
- Her sentiments were echoed by several other members of the public around Hampton Green, a busy but open grassland area.
Synonyms
view, point of view, way of thinking, feeling, attitude, thought, opinion, belief, idea
1.1 [mass noun] General feeling or opinion: the council sought steps to control the rise of racist sentiment...
- Both men lost their cases and seem to have made hardly a dent in the opinions of either their respective presiding judges or public sentiment in general.
- What better metaphor is there for the general public sentiment in the United States in the 1970s?
- But the critics were in the minority as mainstream thinking, as well as public sentiment, generally favoured growth.
1.2A feeling or emotion: an intense sentiment of horror...
- Our sentiments of love, hate, fear, anxiety, are each one of them the fertile source of whole series of illustrative dreams.
- We all share the same sentiments of anger, disgust, and frustration.
- Smith referred to these emotions as the moral sentiments.
Synonyms
feeling, emotion
1.3 archaic The expression of a view or desire especially as formulated for a toast.
2 [mass noun] Exaggerated and self-indulgent feelings of tenderness, sadness, or nostalgia: many of the appeals rely on treacly sentiment...
- If they grow jaded, grow bored, or simply prefer sentiment and nostalgia to active participation, the last avenue of escape is closed.
- Their back-up teams might be more prone to nostalgia and sentiment, especially those who have honed their tallying skills over many the long count.
- I've just given my new stylus a go and listened to this, for the first time in a while - call it nostalgia or sentiment, but it's hard to pick out one bad cut on this.
Synonyms
sentimentality, mawkishness, over-sentimentality, emotionalism, overemotionalism, sentimentalism;
emotion, sensibility, finer feelings, tender feelings, tenderness, softness, soft-heartedness, tender-heartedness;
British tweeness
informal schmaltz, mush, slush, sob stuff, slushiness, sloppiness, slop, goo, corn, corniness, hokum, cheese
British informal soppiness
North American informal sappiness, hokeyness
Origin
Late Middle English (in the senses 'personal experience' and 'physical feeling, sensation'): from Old French sentement, from medieval Latin sentimentum, from Latin sentire 'feel'.