Definition of "sentimentality" [sen•ti•men•tal•i•ty]

• The quality or condition of being excessively or affectedly sentimental. (noun)
• A sentimental idea or an expression of it. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "There were ballads to make the heart beat fast, and one little tragedy, _The Blot in the 'Scutcheon_, which, though not over-disposed to what he called sentimentality, I could not read without tears."
• "It was impossible for me to thank my father; what he called my sentimentality would have exasperated him."
• "This my swashbuckler misnames sentimentality -- and thus I feel that he always tends to admire the wrong qualities, because he condones even what he calls sentimentality in one whom he chooses to admire."