variants or stagey

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of stagy Some reservations: Song plays out the scenes between Lucy and Harry, and between Lucy and John, as two-way dialogues that are often stagy and too on-the-nose. Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor, 12 June 2025 His Cabinet gathered in the Rose Garden alongside supporters wearing hard hats and reflective vests—a stagy reference to all the manufacturing jobs that would presumably be flooding back to U.S. soil. Antonia Hitchens, New Yorker, 21 Apr. 2025 Ferrell just isn’t right for this part: The role is too stagy, too wordy for him, and his style of comedy is just too modern and deconstructionist to handle the Borscht Belt punning of Mel Brooks. Tim Grierson, Vulture, 4 Feb. 2025 Here was elegance without exaggeration, tension and beauty without stagy excess. James Shapiro, The New York Review of Books, 3 Jan. 2025 This framing device, which has the clunky air of a middlebrow play, provides a convenient if stagy way of breaking down his biography into manageable parts. Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 9 Aug. 2024 Advertisement Gwen Grastorf’s embodiment of the scheming goody-goody Arsinoë is a tad stagy, but the character is still a fine foil for the quick-witted Célimène. Celia Wren, Washington Post, 4 May 2023 The fact that the film was made inexpensively, though not a vice in and of itself, is not especially compensated for by Joe Collins’ cinematography, which renders Heffernan’s compositions flat, stagy and small. Todd Gilchrist, Variety, 17 Apr. 2023 The stagy devices give the impression of notions that may have seemed like brainstorms in rehearsal but in performance feel overly artificial. Peter Marks, Washington Post, 1 Mar. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for stagy
Adjective
  • Additionally, Paramount’s fourth film in its Sonic the Hedgehog franchise that adapts the video game series of the same name is set for theatrical release the week prior.
    Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 9 June 2025
  • The action sequel, which marks the franchise’s first new theatrical installment in 15 years, has grossed $35 million domestically and $74 globally to date.
    Rebecca Rubin, Variety, 8 June 2025
Adjective
  • The failure to address these issues, the lawsuit claimed, led to a loss of investor confidence and ultimately triggered the dramatic drop in the company's stock price on April 17.
    Jasmine Laws, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 June 2025
  • The dark-reddish countertops are visually dramatic and incredibly durable.
    David Caraccio, Sacbee.com, 4 June 2025
Adjective
  • The operatic element of Tim Burton’s Batman Returns was my favorite thing about it — the music and sets and the whole thing.
    Jack Smart, People.com, 3 June 2025
  • Yours is more operatic, and my fella is more in the gangster genre.
    Daniel D'Addario, Variety, 2 June 2025
Adjective
  • Yet these persuasive quiet bits sit within the larger shape of a book that was meant to be melodramatic and violent.
    Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 9 June 2025
  • Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Ana de Armas, Sydney Sweeney, and Daniel Brühl are among the stars gone enjoyably unhinged for this true story of melodramatic conflict among the European settlers of a Galápagos island.
    A.A. Dowd, Vulture, 20 May 2025

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Stagy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/stagy. Accessed 18 Jun. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!