Meaning & use
emotionality
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Meanings
noununcountabletechnicalformal
A person's tendency to react to events with strong, easily shown feelings.
Grammar: Uncountable and often used in psychology: high emotionality in children.
Patterns
- emotionality in someone
The study measured emotionality in toddlers after a loud noise.
Her emotionality showed in how quickly she cried at happy endings.
Some cultures value restraint over emotionality in public.
noununcountableformal
The quality of a speech, text, performance or situation that is full of strong feeling.
Grammar: Describes how emotional a thing seems: the emotionality of the film.
Patterns
- the emotionality of something
The emotionality of the debate surprised the moderator.
Critics praised the raw emotionality of the singer's voice.
Lawyers worried that the emotionality of the trial could sway the jury.
Common combinations
- high emotionality
- High emotionality can make decisions harder.
- raw emotionality
- The play was praised for its raw emotionality.
- display emotionality
- He rarely displays emotionality at work.
- heightened emotionality
- Pregnancy can bring heightened emotionality for some women.
- emotionality of
- The emotionality of the speech brought many to tears.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sensitivity
- Sensitivity means being easily affected or hurt, while emotionality is about how strongly feelings are shown.
- emotiveness
- Emotiveness is rarer and suggests the power to arouse feeling in others, not the feeling itself.
- sentimentality
- Sentimentality is often disapproving, suggesting excess tender feeling, whereas emotionality is neutral.
- feeling
- Feeling is the plain everyday word and can mean one emotion, while emotionality means a general tendency.
Opposites
Word family
- emotion noun
- a strong feeling such as joy or fear
- emotional adjective
- relating to feelings, or showing strong feelings
- emotionally adverb
- in a way related to feelings
- unemotional adjective
- not showing feelings
Practice
The researchers found that high ___ in infants predicted how quickly they became upset by new situations.
Choose one answer.
Emotionality is the tendency to react with strong feelings. Rationality, formality and mortality have unrelated meanings.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “emotionality”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.