n.
  - a sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events. 
▸behaviour or events resembling melodrama.
 - historical a play interspersed with songs and orchestral music accompanying the action.
 
 
  Derivative
  
    - melodramatist n.
  - melodramatize
 or melodramatise v. 
   
  Etymology
  C19: from Fr. mélodrame, from Gk melos ‘music’ + Fr. drame ‘drama’.