saccharine

USAGE SUMMARY

'saccharine' is a correct and usable word in written English.
It is an adjective that means overly sweet or excessively sentimental. For example, "The saccharine plot of the romantic comedy made it hard to take the movie seriously."

✓ Grammatically correct

News & Media

Encyclopedias

Human-verified examples from authoritative sources

Exact Expressions

60 human-written examples

It was an improbable love affair, so saccharine and brazenly put on show that it made snobbish Paris high society reach for the sick bag and embarrassed one of France's biggest media and arms conglomerates.

The Guardian

In order to provide breathing space between the disaster set pieces, Stone is provided with a saccharine, implausible backstory full of sledgehammer symbolism.

The Guardian - Film

Plus, as a thousand TV movies show, translating a putatively inspiring real-life story into narrative film is tricky, treacly terrain, filled with saccharine and false sentiment.

The Guardian - Film

Because more often than not, the weekday morning pressure cooker squeezes this beauty of a meal into saccharine cellophane wrappers to be scoffed on a bus or, worse, at one's desk, unless, that is, one has a special way of folding up that homely petit déj into one's bookbag.

The Guardian - Lifestyle

A hit single was had with the saccharine We Don't Need Another Hero.

The Guardian - Film

This lets him showcase his excellent analytical skills, particularly when it comes to music: his discussion of Erich Korngold, a composing prodigy who grew rich and famous writing rather saccharine film scores, is especially insightful.

The Economist

There they meet with saccharine smiles (activated by the "infra-labial muscles") or over-tanned skin ("reversed albinism"), and pretty women, creatures wrapped in synthetics and accessorised with more or less expensive labels.Mr Laurrent's hyper-realistic writing gives forlorn and silently political snapshots of contemporary Paris.

The Economist

The original company was formed in 1901 to make saccharine.

The Economist

Sales of artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and saccharine, which had made successful inroads into the sugar market in recent years, are also in trouble.For a while it seemed that health worries over natural sugar products, and especially high-fructose corn syrup, heralded a bright future for artificial sweeteners.

The Economist

In December the Environmental Protection Agency took saccharine, an artificial sweetener, off its list of hazardous materials more than a decade after scientists had concluded it was not carcinogenic after all.

The Economist

"He freed our souls," said one weepy old woman.Yet Mr Yeltsin's great rival, Mikhail Gorbachev, reflected the mood of most Russians when, amid the polite tributes and saccharine television montages, he alluded to the dead man's "serious mistakes".

The Economist

Expert writing Tips

Best practice

When using "saccharine" to describe something, consider the context and ensure that the level of sweetness or sentimentality is genuinely excessive or artificial. Overuse can dilute its impact.

Common error

Avoid using "saccharine" in every instance where something is sweet or sentimental. Reserve it for situations where the sweetness is excessive, artificial, or cloying to maintain its descriptive power.

Linguistic Context

The adjective "saccharine" functions primarily to describe something as excessively sweet or sentimental, often to the point of being cloying or artificial. Ludwig's examples show its usage in describing movies, songs, and even political tributes.

Expression frequency: Very common

Frequent in

News & Media

79%

Encyclopedias

7%

Science

4%

Less common in

Formal & Business

3%

Wiki

0%

Social Media

0%

Ludwig's WRAP-UP

In summary, "saccharine" functions as an adjective used to describe something excessively sweet or sentimental, often implying artificiality or insincerity. Ludwig AI confirms its grammatical correctness and usability. With a "very common" frequency, as shown through the examples, it frequently appears in news and media sources. To avoid misinterpretations, it’s best employed when the sweetness or sentimentality is noticeably overdone. When other terms like "overly sentimental" or "cloyingly sweet" come to mind, "saccharine" may be appropriate.

More alternative expressions

Phrases that express similar concepts, ordered by semantic similarity:

excessively sweet

Focuses specifically on the sugary taste aspect, less on the emotional.

overly sentimental

Highlights the emotional aspect, removing the potential reference to taste.

cloyingly sweet

Emphasizes the unpleasant or sickening nature of excessive sweetness.

mawkishly sentimental

Implies a more exaggerated and distasteful level of sentimentality.

sickly sweet

Similar to cloying, but with a connotation of artificiality or insincerity.

treacly

A more informal and descriptive term for something excessively sweet or sentimental.

sappy

A more casual and often dismissive term for overly sentimental content.

sugary

A more straightforward and less critical term for something sweet or sentimental.

honeyed

Suggests a smooth, rich, and often insincere sweetness.

fulsome

Implies excessive flattery or insincerity, extending beyond simple sentimentality.

FAQs

How can I use "saccharine" in a sentence?

You can use "saccharine" to describe things that are excessively sweet, sentimental, or artificial. For example, "The movie's plot was so "overly sentimental" that it felt "sappy"."

What can I say instead of "saccharine"?

You can use alternatives like "excessively sweet", "overly sentimental", or "cloyingly sweet" depending on the context.

Which is correct, "saccharine sweetness" or "saccharine taste"?

"Saccharine sweetness" is more commonly used to describe overly sentimental or artificial emotional content, while "saccharine taste" refers to an excessively sweet or artificial flavor.

What's the difference between "saccharine" and "sweet"?

"Sweet" generally refers to a pleasant taste or agreeable quality, while "saccharine" implies an excessive, often artificial, sweetness that can be cloying or insincere.