mannered
mannered Lexical Profile
mannered Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Behaving in an artificial, affected, or overly stylized way that lacks naturalness (of a person, performance, or artistic style).
"The critic found the lead actor's delivery too mannered to be emotionally convincing."
Having social manners or deportment of a specified kind (typically used in combination).
"The guests praised the host's children for being so polite and well-mannered throughout the evening."
Word Nuance & Usage
When used alone, 'mannered' almost always carries a critical connotation of being artificial or affected; in the sense of having a particular kind of social deportment, it is used almost exclusively in hyphenated compounds such as 'well-mannered' or 'ill-mannered'.
• Rhymes for mannered
Word Origin & Etymology
First recorded in the late 14th century from the noun 'manner' (from Anglo-French 'manere', ultimately from Latin 'manus', meaning 'hand') plus the adjectival suffix '-ed'.