Words / C2

KLOY-ing/ˈklɔɪɪŋ/

Cloying is too sweet or sentimental, so it sickens: a cloying ending, cloying perfume. Sentimental can be warm; cloying has gone too far. Saccharine is a close adjective for fake sweetness. Bitter is a taste opposite, not a tone opposite.

Meaning

Too sweet or sentimental, so that it sickens rather than pleases.

Examples

• “The film’s ending was cloying.”
• “The charity film was sincere but cloying.”
• “A cloying soundtrack made the scene comic by accident.”

Good to know

cloying sweetness/sentiment. Close: saccharine. Warm but not sickly: sentimental.

Near in meaning

saccharine

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