banality
Americannoun
-
the condition or quality of being banal, or devoid of freshness or originality.
the banality of everyday life.
-
an instance of this.
We sat around the dinner table exchanging banalities.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of banality
First recorded in 1815–25; from French banalité, equivalent to banal ( def. ) + -ity ( def. )
Explanation
A banality is a trite, boring, or overused remark. That includes clichés like "life is short" and your basic small talk about the weather. Banalities are sayings that almost everyone uses, and because they're so well-known, they've lost all their power. These expressions are clichéd and many people find them annoying. "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade" is one good example. When you're writing or speaking, you're much better off trying to find fresh language because one tends to hear the same old banalities again and again.
Vocabulary lists containing banality
The Namesake
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All the Light We Cannot See
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Prairie Lotus
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And hence misfired plays like this one, in which collaboration among gifted artists results only in a work of logorrheic banality.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 5, 2026
“What interests me are everyman aspects of him. The banality of his evil and the way that evil actions seem to always rise out of fear and insecurity.”
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 13, 2026
The real author describes it as a combination of plagiarism and banality.
From BBC • Jan. 14, 2026
The banality of her letter to Putin was itself a choice — and was completely on brand, for Melania Trump has always been just as opaque as her prose suggests.
From Salon • Aug. 19, 2025
Lydia felt actual physical revulsion at the banality of Dahlia’s problems in the great scope of things.
From "The Serpent King" by Jeff Zentner
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
