banality
Americannoun
plural
banalities-
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.
Etymology
Origin of banality
First recorded in 1815–25; from French banalité, equivalent to banal ( def. ) + -ity ( def. )
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
The real author describes it as a combination of plagiarism and banality.
From BBC • Jan. 14, 2026
Just as Allfrey’s photographs were “crowded with lifetimes,” so is Russell’s novel, a work suffused with the “mystery of kindness” and the banality of violence.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 5, 2025
Or, was "SNL" presenting queerness with the same banality as we’ve come to see straightness, albeit with the use of a somewhat dehumanizing pun?
From Salon • Feb. 17, 2025
Daylight, and the banality of family small talk, would dispel whatever impact she had made as a ghostly illuminated apparition.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
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.
