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Literature vocabulary · Literary Devices and Figures of Speech

Bathos

Meaning in literature, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In literature, bathos means: A sudden, often comic fall from elevated language or emotion to something trivial.

In Turkish: yüceden bayağıya düşüş, batos

How it is used

Use for a clash of elevated and trivial registers, whether intended or accidental.

Example sentences

  1. The speech falls into bathos when eternal love is compared with a discount voucher.

    The cheap practical object punctures the elevated declaration.

  2. The editor removed the joke because its bathos spoiled the funeral scene.

    The comic shift clashes with the mourning tone needed here.

Common collocations

  • unintended bathos
  • comic bathos
  • toneThe attitude that a writer or narrator shows toward the subject and the reader, expressed through word choice and style, such as ironic, serious or playful.
  • comedyA play or story meant to amuse, usually built on misunderstandings and humor and ending happily, often with reunions or marriages.

More terms: Literary Devices and Figures of Speech

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