🔊 Listen to the word Saccharine

SAK-uh-rin

Definition

(adjective) Excessively sweet or sentimental; sickeningly or insincerely agreeable.

Example

The movie’s saccharine ending felt unearned, wrapping up years of complicated relationships with a neat bow that no one believed.

Word Origin

From Medieval Latin saccharum, meaning “sugar,” itself borrowed from Greek sakkharon, which came from Sanskrit sharkara, meaning “grit or gravel” — referring to the granular texture of raw sugar. The word entered English in the late 17th century first as a noun referring to a sugary substance, and later evolved into an adjective describing anything cloyingly sweet, literal or otherwise. It’s also the root of saccharin, the artificial sweetener discovered in 1879.