Master confusing words with ease
Pathos vs. Bathos
Pathos
Examples:
The film's pathos left the audience in tears.Her letter was filled with genuine pathos, moving everyone.Pathos in his speech evoked empathy from the listeners.
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
Bathos
Examples:
The novel's shift from tragedy to humor was pure bathos.Stepping from the sublime to the ridiculous gave the speech its bathos.The painting's sudden use of cartoonish figures was intentional bathos.
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
Ways to tell them apart:
- Pathos and bathos both end in -thos, but their beginnings are different: pa- for pathos and ba- for bathos.
- Pathos is related to emotion, remember it by connecting it to empathy or sympathy, both of which involve feelings.
- Bathos often implies a drop in quality or seriousness, almost like a bath in a lower form of humor.
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