Sentimental vs. Romantic — What's the Difference?

Having, showing, or caused by emotion, especially tender or affectionate feeling

Having, showing, expressive of, or conducive to feelings of love or romance

Having, showing, or caused by strong or extravagant tenderness or sadness, often in an idealized way

Imaginative but impractical; visionary

Characterized by sentiment, sentimentality or excess emotion.

Not based on fact; idealized or fictitious

Derived from emotion rather than reason; of or caused by sentiment.

Of, relating to, or characteristic of artistic romance

Romantic.

Often Romantic Of or characteristic of romanticism in the arts.

Having, expressing, or containing a sentiment or sentiments; abounding with moral reflections; containing a moral reflection; didactic.

A romantic person.

Inclined to sentiment; having an excess of sentiment or sensibility; indulging the sensibilities for their own sake; artificially or affectedly tender; - often in a reproachful sense.

Often Romantic A follower or adherent of romanticism.

Addressed or pleasing to the emotions only, usually to the weaker and the unregulated emotions.

Of a work of literature, a writer etc.: being like or having the characteristics of a romance, or poetic tale of a mythic or quasi-historical time; fantastic.

Given to or marked by sentiment or sentimentality

(obsolete) Fictitious, imaginary.

Effusively or insincerely emotional;

Fantastic, unrealistic (of an idea etc.); fanciful, sentimental, impractical (of a person).

Having the qualities of romance (in the sense of something appealing deeply to the imagination); invoking on a powerfully sentimental idea of life; evocative, atmospheric.

Pertaining to an idealised form of love (originally, as might be felt by the heroes of a romance); conducive to romance; loving, affectionate.

Alternative form of Romantic

Experiencing romantic attraction.

A person with romantic character (a character like those of the knights in a mythic romance).

A person who is behaving romantically (in a manner befitting someone who feels an idealized form of love).

Of or pertaining to romance; involving or resembling romance; hence, fanciful; marvelous; extravagant; unreal; as, a romantic tale; a romantic notion; a romantic undertaking.

Entertaining ideas and expectations suited to a romance; as, a romantic person; a romantic mind.

Of or pertaining to the style of the Christian and popular literature of the Middle Ages, as opposed to the classical antique; of the nature of, or appropriate to, that style; as, the romantic school of poets.

Characterized by strangeness or variety; suggestive of adventure; suited to romance; wild; picturesque; - applied to scenery; as, a romantic landscape.

A soulful or amorous idealist

An artist of the romantic period or someone influenced by romanticism

Belonging to or characteristic of romanticism or the Romantic movement in the arts;

Not sensible about practical matters; unrealistic;