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Apathy is a lack of interest or unenthusiastic involvement in an activity; there is no effort to change or improve it at all.
In writing, bathos is the sudden change from a subject that is serious and important to one that is ordinary, silly, and unimportant.
The adjective blithe indicates that someone does something casually or in a carefree fashion without much concern for the end result; as a result, they are happy and lighthearted.
If you describe a person’s behavior as brazen, you mean that they are not embarrassed by anything they do—they simply don’t care what other people think about them.
Someone in a buoyant mood is in good spirits.
If something discomfits you, it makes you feel embarrassed, confused, uncomfortable, or frustrated.
Someone does something in a disinterested way when they have no personal involvement or attachment to the action.
When someone feels disquiet about a situation, they feel very worried or nervous.
If you exhibit equanimity, you demonstrate a calm mental state—without showing upset or annoyance—when you deal with a difficult situation.
If someone is impassive, they are not showing any emotion.
If someone is imperturbable, they are always calm and not easily upset or disturbed by any situation, even dangerous ones.
If someone is lachrymose, they tend to cry often; if something, such as a song, is lachrymose, it tends to cause tears because it is so sad.
If someone is lugubrious, they are looking very sad or gloomy.
A maudlin person acts in a sad, silly, sentimental, and overly emotional way.
Something is mawkish when it is overly sentimental and silly in an embarrassing way.
Someone who is morose is unhappy, bad-tempered, and unwilling to talk very much.
Someone who is nonchalant is very relaxed and appears not to be worried about anything.
If you are oblivious to something that is happening, you do not notice it.
A state of quiescence is one of quiet and restful inaction.
A spartan lifestyle is very simple and severe; it has no luxuries or comforts.
A stoic person does not show their emotions and does not complain when bad things happen to them.
People who are wistful are rather sad because they want something but know that they cannot have it, especially something that they used to have in the past.
Adj.
nostalgic
no-STAL-jik
Context
When my uncle takes us to the park, he grows nostalgic and emotional as he remembers and longs for his own boyhood there. “Years ago, we played baseball in that field,” he whispered sadly and nostalgically, as if seeing shadows of the golden past. I love hearing Uncle Peter’s nostalgic stories—they make me want to live back when they played the game with wooden bats and sold papers for a dime.
Quiz:Try again!
What happens when someone feels nostalgic?
They look back on something in their past and feel both happy and sad about it.
They think about how much fun it would have been to have lived during a different time period.
They go off by themselves to find a place where they can relax and avoid a stressful situation.
If you feel nostalgic about a happy time in the past, you are feeling sad when you think about it and wish that things had not changed or long for their return.
NotSick Algae When I was young my father raised trout in many fish ponds which we cleaned tons of algae from; I am notnostalgic about cleaning algae because it made me sick, but I do miss my father more than all the algae and fish in the universe.
Examples
What has happened instead, complain Iranians nostalgic for quieter times, is that Nowruz has taken on stronger nationalist tones and grown more strident.
—
The Economist
A gruff fellow, not one to wax poetic, he called to carry on about a little place he'd just discovered, a cowboy steakhouse with a nostalgic vibe and fine country cooking deep in the hills of the Central Coast.
—
Los Angeles Times
The restaurant, which is housed in a former corner gas station, is both nostalgic and comforting, just like the delicious dish.
—
Epicurious
Thankfully many of our friends still had cribs and changing tables [lying] around in the attic because they felt too nostalgic to get rid of them.
—
Washington Post
When one suffers from a nostalgic experience, one feels emotional “pain” as if “returning home” to things that one has loved but which have been lost forever.
Word Theater
YouTube: V Sauce About being nostalgic.
The panel shows a small video clip of either the word in actual use or a scene that represents the meaning of a word. This not only breaks up the monotony of studying words but also provides another avenue to strengthen word meaning. Enjoy!
Word Constellation
Click for an interactive map of this word
Related Words
bathos ·
discomfit ·
disquiet ·
lachrymose ·
lugubrious ·
maudlin ·
mawkish ·
morose ·
wistful ·
apathy ·
blithe ·
brazen ·
buoyant ·
disinterested ·
equanimity ·
impassive ·
imperturbable ·
nonchalant ·
oblivious ·
quiescence ·
spartan ·
stoic ·
Similar sense
Opposite sense
Word Variants
nostalgia
n
→
a feeling of homesickness or a longing for the past
The section lists important variants and alternate definitions of the headword. Knowing variants will often help you both remember and understand the word. Not all variants are listed - only the ones we think that are important for you to know.
