sensationality

English

Etymology

From sensational +‎ -ity.

Noun

sensationality (countable and uncountable, plural sensationalities)

1. (uncountable) The quality of being sensational.

   Synonym: sensationalness

   • 1857 July, “My Neighbor’s Rooster. An Extravaganza.”, in Russell’s Magazine, volume I, number IV, Charleston, S.C.: Steam Power-Press of Walker, Evans & Co., page 354, column 1:

     I began to borrow the striking phraseology of N. Parker Willis, to experience a notion of no-leggedness, succeeded by an acute pit-of-the-stomach-rheumatic-sensationality, and a general savage impulse in the direction of chaotic pitch-a-head-a-tiveness.

   • 1865 March 18, “Theatres”, in The Orchestra: A Weekly Review of Music and the Drama, volume III, number 77, London, page 391, column 2:

     It is a piece wholly sensational, and devoid of any special merit to atone for its redundancy of bad sensationality.

   • 1867 July, W. M. T., “[Philadelphia Letter]”, in E. S. Gaillard, W. S. McChesney, editors, The Richmond Medical Journal, volume IV, number 2, Richmond, Va., published August 1867, page 166:

     The names of these books gives not the slightest idea of their contents; and while perhaps, from this very sensationality (?) of title, they may tempt the curiosity of the general public; yet, for the same reason, they will be passed over by the Physician, except, indeed, when he chances to glance at the author’s name; and despite this singularity, Dr. Storer has a high name for authority, and his works are widely and deservedly popular.

   • 1869, Thomas C[ogswell] Upham, Mental Philosophy; Embracing the Three Departments of the Intellect, Sensibilities, and Will, volume I (The Intellect, with an Appendix on Language), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], page 131:

     We have now given a brief outline, first, of the power of Sensation or Sensationality, and, second, of the power of Perception or Perceptivity; together with some account of the senses, through which they respectively operate, and by means of which they are made available aa sources or inlets of knowledge.

   • 1870 October 20, The Revolution, volume VI, number 16 (whole 146), New York, N.Y., page 245, column 2:

     The London Saturday Review pays the following well-merited compliment to two American lady authors: “Very few of even our best writers can compass a book for the young which shall be all that it ought to be, avoiding, on the one hand, extravagant sensationality and a standard so high as to be outside human nature altogether; on the other, vapid silliness, which no grown girl can accept as fitting food for her mind at all, and which irritates, as all pretense and make-believe must. […]”

   • 2007 May 31, Lorri Helfand, “Transgender issue downplayed”, in St. Petersburg Times, volume 123, number 311, page 4B:

     “Within two to three weeks after I am hired in this position, the media will realize that it won’t matter what kind of necklace I’m wearing or the color of my shoes,” she [Susan Stanton] said. “The sensationality will go away.”

2. (countable) Something or someone sensational.
   • 1872 June 24, The Southern Home‎^[1], volume 3, number 126, Charlotte, N.C.:

     The special sensationalities were the big drum, (as large as an ordinary room,) the big organ, and the anvil chorus.

   • 1887 May 31, “Our London Letter”, in The Sheffield & Rotherham Independent, volume LXVIII, number 10,212, published 1 June 1887, page 4:

     By-the-way, those of your readers who have a love for stage sensationalities of the most brilliant and studied kind should endeavour to see Mrs. Bernard Beere in “As in a Looking Glass.”

   • 1908 June, H[enry] Heathcote Statham, “Reflections at the Salon and the Royal Academy”, in The Nineteenth Century and After, volume LXIII, number CCCLXXVI, New York, N.Y.: Leonard Scott Publication Co.; London: Spottiswoode & Co. Ltd., […], page 952:

     Nevertheless, the picture (which has been bought by the Government) would make most things in the Academy look weak, and it may serve as an occasion for pointing out that M. Gervais, whose name and works seem curiously unknown in England, is a perfectly different person from M. Gervex, with whom he seems generally to be confounded, and who is but a clever painter of sensationalities, with no sense of colour, while M. Gervais is a great colorist with a monumental style.